


Rails of Gold

by GalacticDefender4679



Category: My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, Thomas the Tank Engine - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, High School, Magic, universe hopping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:35:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24779227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalacticDefender4679/pseuds/GalacticDefender4679
Summary: When the Magic Railway starts losing power, there’s only one explanation; Lady the Magical Engine has gone missing. Thomas agrees to find her before he even knows what he’s getting himself into and ends up in a world he never knew existed. But new worlds bring new friends… and old adversaries. The question is: are Thomas and his new friends up to the task of saving all their worlds?
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	1. The Magic is Gone

The Island of Sodor had been enjoying a grand age of prosperity for the last several months; freight from overseas and island industries was shifted right on time, the passengers weren’t complaining about anything, and there hadn’t been any major breakdowns, accidents, or delays for a long time.

Most of that was thanks to the shrewd management skill of the railway’s director Sir Topham Hatt, but it was also due to its wise and powerful engines, including the number 1: Thomas the Tank Engine; a bright blue little engine with six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler, and a short stumpy dome.

Thomas may be small, but he’s very strong and always willing to take on new jobs around the railway, especially on his Ffarquhar Branch Line where he runs freight up and down the line through the hills and passenger services around the valley with his two faithful coaches Annie and Clarabel. Of course, he doesn’t shoulder the burden of the line’s work himself. He also has his friend Percy who helps with freight when they’re not taking the mail trains together, and Toby; an old steam tram who’s forgotten more about freight cars than most engines will ever know.

Still, even between the three of them and their other friends around the island, Thomas had been finding himself exhausted at the end of many journeys along his line. Sir Topham Hatt saw this one day as he saw Thomas pulling into Knapford Station, red in the face and low on steam. “I say, Thomas, are you alright?”

Thomas was panting but still smiled when he saw the controller. “I’m- I’m fine Sir,” he said. “Just- Just a bit tired.”

“I can see that.” Sir Topham ran a hand over his bald head in concern before he replaced his top hat. “You must’ve pushed yourself incredibly to make it here.”

“Oh, he did sir.” Annie chimed in. “He nearly knocked himself to pieces.”

“Still he’s a gallant engine, making it here despite it,” added Clarabel.

Sir Topham smiled at the coaches, then to Thomas. “Indeed he is. And for that, dear Thomas, I think you deserve these next two days off.” Thomas was surprised. “What’s more; to start this time off, I’m ordering you to report to the Steamworks for a full examination. Make sure you aren’t in any real danger of falling apart.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Thomas said happily. “But Sir, what about my branch line? Someone will have to do my job while I’m away.”

“Don’t worry Thomas, I can have Rosie or Stafford fill in for you.” Sir Topham Hatt smiled. “Now leave Annie and Clarabel here and be off with you. I’ll tell Victor you’re on the way.”

Thomas smiled happily as he was uncoupled from his coaches. “Right away Sir. Thank you, Sir.” And with a happy **“Peep-Peep!”** on his whistle, he rumbled away to the Steamworks.

When he arrived, he was happy to see Victor and Kevin waiting for him near the main door. “Ah, Thomas my friend. Right on time. Come right in; let’s see what we can do.”

Thomas steamed in easily, stopping right on the maintenance turntable for the men to look him over. While there, he smiled as he saw a familiar arch-shaped face on one of the side-tracks. “Hello, Stanley! What’re you doing here?”

Stanley was an old friend of Thomas’ from when the town of Great Waterton was found and restored. Stanley was a very strong tank engine with gleaming white paint and red wheels who always liked seeing Thomas. “Ah, just here for routine maintenance Thomas; nothin’ more. How about you?”

“I ran myself ragged out on my branch line today, so Sir Topham Hatt has given me the next two days off.” Thomas smiled. “I’m here for maintenance as well, to make sure I stay in one piece.”

Victor laughed as the men set to work. “Well don’t worry, my friend. We’ll have you back out on the line in no time.” Then a loud crash sounded from the back of the workshop as a stray wheel rolled over to the turntable. “Kevin!”

“Sorry boss!” Kevin called back. “Slip of the hook.” Victor rolled his eyes as he set back to work, letting Thomas and Stanley just laugh.

Soon enough, Thomas was back in working order. And more than that as Victor had apparently been told to give Thomas a fresh coat of paint and polish; his paint gleamed in the sun and his whistle shone like gold. With nothing else to do, Thomas steamed away to go for a run all around the island. It had been too long since he’d been to some parts and he was planning to remedy that.

He decided he’d start with a run up the Kirk Ronan branch line to see his old friend Fergus at the Sodor Cement Works. But there was one problem; he didn’t remember how to get to the cement works, so he ended up taking a wrong turn and arriving near a high viaduct outside Rolf’s Castle known locally as the Big Dipper. It was then that he remembered the last time he’d been out over this viaduct; when he and Lady the Magical Engine were running from Diesel 10. That made him remember something else. “Cinders and Ashes! The Magic Railway; of course!” Quickly he raced over the bridge again, still cautious as he wasn’t sure how strong it was since that chase.

Once he reached the other side, he was surprised to see Percy heading toward him on the other line with a mail train. “Thomas? What’re you doing out here?”

“I have the next two days off, so I thought I’d visit the Magic Railway.” Thomas smiled. “Care to join me?”

Percy’s face fell. “Oh, I’d like to but the mail won’t deliver itself.”

“Ah well. Another time then perhaps.” Thomas smiled and whistled at his friend. They were both just about to part ways when a loud familiar whistle sounded through the grasslands, accompanied by some staticky zaps as a cloud of golden mist appeared and quickly faded from the area.

In the cloud’s place was someone the engines of Sodor remembered very well. “Mr. Conductor?!” Thomas was amazed; Mr. Conductor hadn’t been to Sodor in a long time and now here he was. “Bust my boiler, what’re you doing here?”

Mr. Conductor coughed for a few seconds, which allowed Thomas a better look at the railway’s old friend. He didn’t look good; his suit was a far deeper shade of blue than usual, his coat was unbuttoned, his vest and shirt untucked from his trousers, his necktie was loose around his collar, and his cap was crooked and missing part of its brim. He also looked like he hadn’t shaved or slept for a while, and he was holding a cane in his right hand, which worried Thomas and Percy even more. Finally, his coughing subsided and he was able to look at the two engines with a kind look on his grizzled face. “Hello, you two. I’m sorry for the dramatic entrance, but I need your help. Or to be more accurate, Burnett needs your help.”

“Mr. Stone?” Thomas remembered Burnett very well; he was the man who built Lady and who brought her back to working order after Diesel 10 crashed her many years ago. “Why, what’s wrong? Does Lady need help?”

“I’d say so.” Mr. Conductor nodded. “She’s gone missing. No one knows where she is, not even Burnett. And with her gone, the trip here from Shining Time has only gotten rougher.”

“Has it?” Thomas asked in concern. “What do you think happened to Lady, Mr. Conductor?”

The old railwayman shrugged as he limped forward on his cane and coughed, his leg apparently causing him pain before he rested a hand on Thomas’ running plate. “I don’t know Thomas. But I do know that we need to find her. Without her, our worlds will fall apart and I’ll run out of Gold Dust permanently.”

“You mean Sodor and Shining Time will disappear?” Percy shivered on his chassis as he asked this, terrified that Sodor might be gone.

“Not just that, Percy.” Mr. Conductor said grimly, holding back a cough. “There are plenty of other worlds that connect to the Magic Railway through buffers and portals that-” He stopped as if he’d just seen something familiar in the brush nearby. Then he smiled broadly as if it had given him a grand idea. “I’ll be right back. Neither of you go anywhere.” With that, he limped away as fast as his legs and cane could carry him.

Thomas and Percy were both confused at their old friend’s behavior, even moreso when he came back with a carrot and a stalk of celery in his free hand. “Thanks again, Rabbit.” Without any more fanfare, he took a bite out of the carrot and fiddled with it as he thought, placing the celery in his jacket pocket. Suddenly his head shot straight up. “Course! Horse!” Thomas and Percy glanced at each other, perplexed about what was happening as Mr. Conductor took another bite, thinking again before his gaze sprang up. “Inflection! Connection!”

“Uh, are you okay Mr. Conductor?” asked Thomas.

“Just fine Thomas, just fine.” Mr. Conductor replied, before glancing at the carrot. “Although this doesn’t seem to be working. I’d better try the celery.” This just confused Thomas and Percy even more as they saw Mr. Conductor replace the carrot with the celery and take a bite from it. He thought even more before his gaze shot out. “Cupcake! Buffers!” He hiccupped after this but took another bite anyway, getting a repeat of the scenario. “Wardrobe! Points!” Another hiccup, but now something occurred to Thomas.

“Wait-wait, points? There are junctions on the Magic Railway?” This made Mr. Conductor realize it too.

“Of course. And the junctions lead to different worlds. That’s it. That’s it! Ha-Ha!” Mr. Conductor laughed. “Why didn’t I think of it sooner? Lady must be stranded in another world. One she can’t escape from.” Another hiccup and he smiled even more broadly than before.

“Then we have to find her before something else does,” said Thomas.

“Uh-uh. Not we, Thomas. You.” Mr. Conductor corrected.

“Me?!” Thomas was suddenly scared. “By myself? But- But I can’t. I have a branch line to run!” Thomas reminded. “I can’t run off to another world and leave my friends behind.”

“But if you don’t, none of us may be around to regret it.” Mr. Conductor argued calmly. “Besides, you helped me and Burnett save Lady once. You can do it again. I know you can because you’re the same really useful engine my family met all those years ago.”

Thomas glanced at Percy who was smiling at his old friend before he looked back at Mr. Conductor with a strong smile. “Then… I’ll do my best.”

Mr. Conductor smiled. “That’s a good engine. Now here, you’ll need this.” He opened his whistle and tossed it in the air a few times, letting Gold Dust scatter all over Thomas until his paint was visibly glittering. “There. That’s nearly all the Gold Dust I have. I still need some for the trip back to Shining Time, but you should have enough to make sure the trip to wherever Lady is won’t be a bumpy one.”

Thomas quickly realized something. “That reminds me. How am I going to find Lady anyway?”

“Once you’re on the Magic Railroad, the Gold Dust will pull you toward her like a magnet.” Mr. Conductor explained. “As long as the rails aren’t too damaged, the points should set automatically to let you find her.”

Thomas smiled. “Alright. Here goes nothing then.” Steam whizzed into his cylinders and flew from his funnel as he eased toward the junction. Mr. Conductor quickly switched the points to allow Thomas onto the right track before the engine looked at him. “Mr. Conductor, what about Sir Topham Hatt?”

“I’ll talk to him after I stock up in Shining Time. For now, good luck.” Mr. Conductor smiled. Thomas smiled back and whistled, before picking up steam as he rumbled down the siding. Once he was gone, Mr. Conductor gave one last smile at Percy. “Till next time Percy.” Percy whistled and steamed away as well, leaving Mr. Conductor alone for a few seconds. “Sparkle-sparkle-sparkle!” With that, he blew his whistle and disappeared into gold mist, flying ahead of Thomas and shooting through the buffers.

Thomas smiled at his friend leading the way when he was suddenly surprised by a strange voice. “Howdy there Blue Buckaroo!” Thomas looked off to his side and saw a tumbleweed rolling along next to him. The same tumbleweed that had led him and Lily through the buffers before. “Time for another trip to Bufferville, huh?”

Thomas smiled; he knew what that meant. “So it seems!”

“Well, let’s get a-rollin! Right this way, partner! Yee-hoo!” the tumbleweed laughed.

“Little Engines can do Big Things!” Thomas roared and shot through the buffers, the portal roaring open with the sounds of passing locomotives and crossing bells just before he hit them and sending him through to the Magic Railway.

Or at least, what it had become. Mr. Conductor was right; the railway had seen better days. Without Lady, the tame green foliage around him had grown into high pricker bushes, the bright blue sky was filling with heavy black clouds and the golden rails were rusting. Looking ahead, Thomas looked off to one side and saw a small siding on his left; the same siding he and Lily had found his runaway coal truck in before. But he also saw other junctions ahead of that one; junctions that led off in too many other directions for Thomas to count.

Suddenly the points ahead of him switched on their own, just like Mr. Conductor said they would, and sent Thomas down a different line than before… a line that dead-ended in a tall white reflective wall. “Cinders and Ashes!” he cried. He applied his brakes, but for some reason, he wouldn’t even slow down let alone stop. It was almost as if the Gold Dust was dragging him by his coupling hook toward the wall. Fearing the worst, Thomas slammed his eyes shut just before he hit the wall.


	2. New Magic

_Meanwhile…_

Canterlot High was just like any other high school with a remarkable sports program, a fledgling music program that was really getting off the ground, and a student body that couldn’t be better friends. All-in-all, a perfect high school free of problems of any kind…

…Is how I _would_ describe it if it weren’t for everything that had happened since the last Fall Formal. Ever since the school’s now-former bully Sunset Shimmer stole a magic crown from a parallel world and turned into a crazed power-hungry she-demon, she and her new friends have had to contend with insane magic from that same parallel world almost every other week.

Still, that doesn’t take time away from the girls’ school activities and hobbies. Those were time-wasters of their own. At least, that’s what Rainbow Dash thought right now. She and the others had been in the school’s tech lab for almost an hour, waiting for their prodigious friend Twilight Sparkle to finish up with something, but she wouldn’t tell any of them what it was. “Alright Twilight, we’re about done waiting. I have gym class in a few minutes and I’ve got to go see if any of the newbies have what it takes to make it on the soccer team.”

“I’ve gotta agree with Dash, Twi.” Sunset shrugged. “What’re you working on anyway?”

“Something that’s going to make our lives so much easier.” Twilight smiled, adjusting a final piece on a circuit board.

Rarity scoffed a bit. “Now-now Darling, I enjoy being overly dramatic as much as the next girl, but honestly what _are_ you working on?”

“Maybe it’s bait for giant gummy bears!” Pinkie smiled crazily. “They’ve been going crazy all around the city park!”

Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled as she finished the circuit board and locked it into her project. “Not exactly or at all, Pinkie. I’m actually working on… this!” With that, she whipped around from her work-station and held aloft a painfully familiar device; it was the same design as the amulet Twilight made that had once captured the girls’ inner magic at the Friendship Games.

Naturally, the whole rest of the team recoiled in fear, Fluttershy especially. “You built another one of those?! Didn’t you learn your lesson last time?!” Sunset shrieked.

Twilight was scared as well, but for other reasons. She remembered exactly what had happened at the Friendship Games; how her original amulet had accidentally stolen the magic from all her new friends and the portal to the realm of Equestria before it broke free and turned her into a magic she-demon herself. “No-no-no Sunset, relax. I learned, I learned. I removed the containment feature from the original; this is just a measuring device now.”

The girls glanced at each other in concern, but shrugged and moved in closer. “Alright, so what does it do now?” Rainbow asked, hopping up to sit on the table.

“Just a measurement and tracking device Rainbow Dash, nothing more,” Twilight assured. “All it can do now is track EM frequencies like magic bursts from any source, not just Equestria.”

“Why’d you make the old one contain magic anyway?” Spike’s question was very fair; she hadn’t explained that before.

“I thought I could understand the magic better with a hands-on analysis.” Twilight explained, looking over her notes on the new amulet. “I figured that if I could provide concrete information about the anomalies around CHS, I’d practically be guaranteed a spot in the Everton Independent Study Group.” She gave a sighing chuckle as she remembered that old goal of hers. “But I think we all know that I wasn’t really ready for that approach.”

Applejack chuckled a bit. “Hard to believe ya wanted to be even more alone back in the day.”

Twilight giggled at that. “Yeah, it is pretty funny isn’t it?”

Sunset remembered something. “Wait a minute, you said you could track magic from _any_ source? Why would you want to try and track other magic?”

Twilight shrugged, unsure of how to answer that question. Thankfully, Fluttershy did it for her. “Well um, we can’t be sure that all the magic in our world is from the pony world. I-It could be from another place.”

Twilight smiled. “Exactly. And if we want to make sure of that, I’ve had to run some modifications on my original prototype so it can track and measure other magical frequencies that have appeared in this world.”

“Seems like quite a bit of work just to investigate an unproved theory Darling.” Rarity said simply. “I’ve only just gotten my head around Equestrian magic, and now you’re telling me there may be other kinds out there? My wardrobe is already seeing enough abuse as it is.”

“Question is, if there _is_ another source of magic aside from Equestria, where’n the hay is it?” asked Applejack.

Twilight smiled, holding up the amulet. “That’s what I intend to find out. With this.” She switched on the device with a simple press on the center button, letting the device light up.

“Well, while you’re doing that, I’ve gotta head up to the field.” Rainbow shrugged, checking her watch. “Gym class starts in a minute. Later!” With that and little other fanfare, Rainbow activated her Geode power and almost zipped away at top speed toward the soccer field before the amulet started beeping.

“Whoa-whoa-whoa, wait!” Twilight quickly stopped her and the others as the device flashed. “I think my tracker’s got something.” The whole team looked at the device just in time for part of it to glow gold. “That’s weird. I didn’t design it to flash gold.”

“Well, this is, what, the first test-drive on this thing?” Rainbow shrugged. “Bound to be a bug or two.”

Then the gold light dropped to a single notch on the side of the device. Twilight was interested so she turned the device so the top was pointing where the device was aimed where the light was… and the light shifted to the top, almost like a compass needle pointing north. “I don’t think this is a bug, Rainbow Dash. I think this is a hit. Cmon!” Quickly, the girls raced out of the lab and started following the light.

“What do you guys think this thing is leading us to?” asked Rainbow.

“Maybe it’s leading us to where the giant gummy bears are hiding!” Pinkie suggested happily.

Sunset glanced back at her with a weird look in her eye. “What is up with you and the gummy bears all of a sudden?”

“I dunno. Probably just cravings or something.” Pinkie shrugged.

“Girls, focus,” Twilight ordered. “We might be on the verge of discovering a new type of magic.” That was more than enough for the girls to quiet down and follow Twilight. They had just reached the statue plinth when the light stopped.

“What happened?” asked Sunset.

“I’m not sure,” Twilight answered honestly. “We lost the signal.”

“Maybe it was a false alarm.” shrugged Applejack.

“No, I’d be sure if it was,” Twilight argued. “We must’ve found a new source of magic. Equestrian magic on this thing is only calibrated to glow pink, not gold.”

“So there really _is_ another kind of magic out there?” asked Sunset.

“Freaky-deaky!” Pinkie thought aloud.

“Especially if it can mess with one of Twilight’s inventions like that.” Spike agreed.

She looked around with a discerning eye and scowled a bit. “Fan out. If you find anything out of place, I’ll look it over with the device.”

Everyone started looking, but no one found anything for a few seconds… until Rainbow noticed something on the plinth and smirked. “Hey Twilight, I think I found something.” The girls all came over and looked at where Rainbow was pointing.

“A crack? Where’d it come from?” Twilight asked, confused.

It didn’t take long for Sunset to realize it. “From you.” Twilight looked at her with a confused look on her face. “You blew up the statue, remember? The blast must’ve cracked the portal.”

Twilight wasn’t sure, so she checked the crack with her amulet… which immediately went crazy; beeping and whistling, flashing every color humanly possible and shaking like it was about to explode. Quickly, she pulled the device away from the crack and jumped back. “Okay. I think we can all agree that the crack… is not the source of that gold light.”

“Agreed.” Sunset nodded, equally freaked out. “But then the question becomes ‘Where did this new magic come from’?”

Rarity nodded. “Yes, that is indeed the question.”

“Well, answering it is gonna have to wait,” Rainbow noted. “It’s almost time for class. We’d better get moving.”

The others agreed and walked back to the main doors. “I’ll let you guys know what happens if I pick anything else up,” Twilight assured as they all went their separate ways. But when they did, Twilight could swear she heard something behind her; something that sounded like a shrill high-pitched steam whistle. But when she looked, there was nothing there. “What is going on?”

She and the others would find out soon enough.


	3. New World

Thomas had only ever felt pain like this when he fell down the tunnel at the Harwick Branch worksite and found Captain Callous’ pirate ship in the cave. He groaned as he cracked his eyes open and saw that he wasn’t even _near_ a railway line, much less _on_ one. He was laying on a rough, uncomfortable surface and when he finally opened his eyes, he saw something that greatly amazed him. Where he looked down and normally saw his bufferbeam, he instead saw a human body.

“Fizzling fireboxes, I’m a person!” He was reasonably frightened by this turn of events and quickly stood, wobbly on his new legs, and more than a bit disconcerted about his lack of wheels so he stuck his left hand out to grab something to steady him and fully grasp his situation. He was every bit as human as Sir Topham Hatt, Farmer McColl, Mr. Conductor, or Burnett Stone were, and it scared him. He had no idea what to do, so he looked around. “Okay Thomas, don’t panic. Just get your bearings and you’ll be fine.” He found himself on a flat concrete area almost like a station platform and glanced at what he found himself leaning on; a large plinth that looked like it might hold a statue, absent though the actual statue might have been. The side of the plinth near him was clean and smooth almost like a mirror.

Curious, he placed his right hand on the mirror-like side of the plinth, surprised to see his hand go straight through it and transform into his right buffer on the other side. Frightened, he pulled back through and got his hand back which solidified one thing for him; this plinth was where he had just jumped out of to exit the Magic Railway.

Looking around, Thomas saw a massive building on his right; a purple two-story complex that looked nearly as large as Tidmouth Sheds, if not larger, with large glass windows on nearly every wall of both levels and a large glass dome on the roof, gold horse-head gargoyles on the very top of the building (as well as two on the roof of the landing), grassy meadow-like areas on either side of the concrete walkway to the front doors. Off to the left of the building was some sort of sign made of two large gold horseshoe shapes, with the inner one on its side like a C.

One thing was evident to the young engine; he definitely wasn’t on Sodor anymore. And he couldn’t see Muffle Mountain around anywhere, so he knew he wasn't in Shining Time either. So there he was; alone, frightened, and unsure of where he was, but determined in what to do, Thomas took a deep breath and remembered the wise words of his friend Gator; “ _Being brave isn’t the same as not being scared. Being brave is about what you do, even when you do feel scared_ ”.

“Gator’s right,” Thomas told himself. “Mr. Conductor is counting on me. He believes in me and so does Percy. I’m going to bring Lady home and save all our worlds. And I’m not going to allow any minor setbacks-” He tried taking a first step as he said this, but practically immediately lost his balance so he quickly leaned on the plinth again. “Okay, _major_ setbacks… get in the way of that. Little Engines _can_ do big things, but I can do anything. And now, it’s time to save Sodor!”

But before he did that, he had to learn something first; how to walk. He tried taking more steps, but he still couldn’t move without losing balance; his legs were wobbling like jelly under his body’s weight so he stayed leaning against the plinth for a second. He saw someone walking by with a dog, so he quickly tried to act as nonchalant as possible so as not to draw attention… and thankfully it worked; the man just walked straight past without so much as batting an eye at Thomas.

He let out a sigh of relief and looked up to the door to the large building. “Come on Thomas. You’ve seen people walk around all the time all over Sodor. It can’t be that hard, can it?” He decided to start simple and just shuffle to start. He released his dependency on the plinth and stood as straight up as he could, holding his arms out like he was on a tightrope and only lifted his feet half-an-inch and took steps of only six inches.

Once he’d gotten used to that, he lowered his arms and started taking higher and longer steps, trying his hardest to imitate Sir Topham Hatt’s walk. He nearly lost his balance a few times doing this, but finally, he made it to the stairs and grabbed the handrail to try and get his balance back. Slowly walking up the stairs to the glass doors, he took another deep breath. “Alright, this should be easy enough. You know how doors work.” He reached for the handle and pulled, confused when it wouldn’t open. He pulled again, only to be met with the hinges and lock rattling against him. Now he was getting cross, but then he looked at the white text above the handle; “Push”. He could practically feel his face turning redder than James’ paintwork, thankful there was no one around to see him fail so spectacularly as he pushed the door in and let himself into the strange building.

Once inside, he found himself in a large vaulted common area with long blue and gold banners hanging from the ceiling. Off to one side, he saw a glass display case with trophies inside it, several of which had a name on them that might’ve been the name of this place; Canterlot High School. “So this is a secondary school, is it?” Thomas asked himself… before focusing on his reflection in the glass; his face appeared the same as it always had with his pronounced round nose and pale skin with a tinge of blue to it. He also had bright green eyes and shaggy blue hair on his head. Looking over his clothes, he saw he was wearing a blue t-shirt with a gold collar under a darker blue vest with red stripes and a gold number 1 badge on his lapel, blue jeans with a red-buckled gold belt, and blue and red trainers with a blue and red backpack slung over his back, which must’ve accounted for most of his weight outside, as well as a small brass whistle charm on a string around his neck that looked like his own steam-whistle. “What is this place?”

He also saw a few pictures of what looked like contest winners at school dances, nearly all of the recent ones being the same girl. “Sunset Shimmer. Huh. Odd name.”

Before he could look any further at any of these pictures, a loud rattling bell rang out through the halls, which suddenly filled with students walking every which way. Thomas could tell from the accents of several of them that he was in America somewhere, and he quickly tried to stick to the wall and avoid getting in the way, but then he realized that if he was ever going to find Lady, now would be as good a place to start as any. Quickly, he slipped into the crowd and weaved his way through, apologizing if he bumped anyone and doing his best to keep his balance. Finally, someone bumped him hard enough to send them both falling to the ground.

Thomas looked and saw it was a girl he had bumped into; a young girl (though Thomas wouldn’t consider her to be a child given her apparent age) with red and gold hair, bright amber skin and gleaming bright blue eyes, wearing a black leather vest with gold spikes on the collar, an orange t-shirt with a red and yellow sun design, an orange geode pendant around her neck, a black belt with grey decals, a purple and black wrap-around skirt, and high-heeled black boots.

She looked fairly annoyed when she turned to Thomas, presumably to complain about him knocking her over but her gaze quickly softened when she locked her eyes on him, her gaze turning to one of confusion. Thomas shared the expression, hoping the girl wasn’t too angry with him as they both stood up.

“Sorry about that,” they said that simultaneously which surprised them. “No, it was my fault.” Another jinx, which couldn’t help but make them share a laugh.

Thomas quickly became quite nervous and hugged his arm as he grabbed up his backpack. “Uh, sorry again. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

The girl smirked a bit. “Lost, huh?” Thomas shrugged noncommittedly, which only made the girl snigger a bit. “Don’t worry; it happens to all of us on our first day.”

The two stood alone in the middle of the hall for a minute, unsure of what to do next. Thomas had to admit, he thought she looked rather unusual. Looking around, he realized he thought that about everyone in the school; their skin, hair, and eye colors looked terribly unnatural compared to the people on Sodor. Yet despite that, he seemed to have a growing fondness for this girl he was standing with the more he looked her over. It was obvious the girl was having the same sorts of thoughts as she turned her head away, a bright red crawling up her face as she smiled.

She cleared her throat and adjusted the strap on her backpack as she eyed him. “We should probably get going or we’re gonna be late.”

Thomas was confused. “Going where?” The girl didn’t answer him and just went on her way down a hallway. Thomas wasn’t sure what to do, so he shrugged and turned on his heel… almost running smack into someone else. Quickly he moved back, seeing the woman had bright white skin, mauve eyes, and hair that was a curious mix of light pink, blue, and purple. She was wearing a bright gold blazer over a purple and white shirt, purple trousers, pale-gold shoes, and a purple belt with a sun-shaped buckle. “Uh, beg your pardon ma’am.”

“It’s fine,” she assured. “Y’know, I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before. Are you a surprise newcomer?”

Thomas quickly thought he should roll with it and nodded. “Uh yes, I just arrived a few minutes ago.”

“Oh. Well then I’m afraid you’re a bit late; day’s almost over.” she shrugged. “Eh, doesn’t matter. You look like a smart boy; you should be able to catch up pretty fast.” Thomas seemed fairly worried that this might distract him from his goals, but didn’t want to interrupt her to say so. “In the meantime, introductions. I’m Principal Celestia.”

She extended her hand to Thomas, who seemed worried. He’d seen Sir Topham Hatt shake people’s hands plenty of times but he’d never had to do it before. Carefully, he extended his hand and shook her hand, surprised at how hard it was. “Uh, Thomas. How do you do?”

“Nice name. Does it come with a last name?” Celestia joked.

Thomas however was worried; technically speaking he didn’t _have_ a last name. But then he remembered the engine-works in Brighton where he was built and the name of his designer. “Uh, Billinton.” Thomas hoped his designer wouldn’t mind one of his engines using his name as Celestia looked at her clipboard.

“Huh. Hmm. I don’t have that name anywhere here.” Celestia shrugged.

“Uh, my papers probably got lost in the post.” Thomas excused. “I’m from a fairly small island off the English coast. You probably haven’t heard of it.”

Celestia smirked and placed a hand on her hip. “Try me.”

Thomas was deeply hoping she wouldn’t say that, but either way prayed she hadn’t heard of what he said next. “It’s uh… it’s called Sodor.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow and thought for a moment. “You’re right. I don’t think I have heard of that.” She shrugged. “Eh, well it would account for your papers not making it. Either way, since this is your first time here, I’ll see if I can work up a schedule for you by the end of the week. In the meantime, you’re free to wait in my office and I’ll have someone come to give you a tour around the school. And if you see anything you want to help out with, feel free to. I admire initiative in my students.”

Thomas smiled at that. “I will, ma’am. My friends on Sodor and I have a… uh, what’s the word for a system of thought?”

“‘Philosophy’?” Celestia suggested.

Thomas smiled. “That’s it: yes, we have a philosophy; to always be Responsible, Reliable, and Really Useful.”

Celestia smiled. “Say, I like that. Do you mind if I use it?”

“Oh, be my guest.” Thomas smiled.

“Thanks. Anyway, my office is over here.” Celestia smiled as she led him over to the office. “If you need anything, just ask.”

This was the chance Thomas was looking for. “In that case-” Celestia turned her head to him, at which point Thomas second-guessed what he was about to say; was it really a good idea to tell anyone here that he was actually a living tank engine from another world accessible only through a magic railway protected by a magical engine that creates magic Gold Dust? No one would believe him, and he didn’t want to feel any more foolish than he already did when he was trying to adjust to this human body. He cleared his throat and smiled simply. “Can I have some water, please?”

Celestia smiled. “Of course.” She left for a moment and returned with a glass of water, which she handed to him. “There ya go. If you need anything else, just ask someone. In the meantime, I do have a school to run.” With that, she turned away and went to her main office.

Thomas was more than a bit worried about Lady, but there wasn’t much he could do about it so he simply drank the water and focused. He would have other chances to find Lady. After all, she couldn’t have gotten far. If Thomas had ended up at this school, then she must have as well. All he had to do was find her.


	4. Friends

By the time the last bell had sounded, Thomas had gotten too worried about Lady to sit still at least three times over. On the upside, he’d also helped out around the office and neighboring classrooms, earning himself quite a reputation as an eager, hard-working boy. Thomas was proud to be of service, but he was still worried. What if Lady had gotten herself into some sort of trouble in this world that Thomas couldn’t have foreseen?

Either way, Thomas knew worrying like this was just going to make him worry too much about a scenario that may not actually be happening. He’d been out for a walk since halfway through the last period class, trying his best to find anyone who looked even the tiniest bit like Lady, but he couldn’t find anyone. All he found was a mass of students, all engaged in various after-school activities. It made him wonder if Lady was really in the school at all. Yet still, he looked as he had a suspicious feeling there was far more to this school than meets the eye.

He rounded one corner and found himself in front of a small stall run by a grey-skinned girl with pale blonde hair and yellow eyes… which appeared fairly wonky, but she still seemed fairly kind as she smiled at Thomas. He wasn’t sure what to do, so he just smiled back and raised a hand in a simple wave. The girl then extended him a small muffin, which he was confused about for a few seconds but smiled. “Oh. Um, thank you.”

He easily accepted the muffin, but then he saw a small sign on the stall that said “Canterlot Bake Sale. Money goes to upkeep for Camp Everfree”. That was what made Thomas realize this girl wanted money for this muffin. “Oh. Uh, hang on. I uh, I don’t think I have anything American, but I might have a few quid on me. Do you accept those?” Thomas quickly put the muffin back on the table and started checking every crevice of his body and outfit he could possibly have money, even in his shoes. He was sure doing _that_ whilst standing up made him look silly. And he was right; the girl was quietly laughing. Finally, he found that he didn’t have any money and looked disheartened at the girl. “I’m sorry. I can’t pay for this.” The girl seemed sad as well, as Thomas pushed the muffin back toward her on the table. “Sorry again.”

The girl just smiled and pushed the muffin back toward him. “This one’s on the house. I like you.” Thomas was just confused now, but then he heard someone familiar off to his side.

“Hey there Ditzy, how’s the bake sale going?” It was the same girl he’d bumped into in the main hall of the school. She clearly recognized him as well since she smiled. “Oh hey. What’re the odds? I was just looking for you.”

“You were?” asked Thomas.

“Yeah, Principal Celestia asked me to give you a tour of the school.” the girl smiled.

“Really? Oh well, that’s awfully nice of you.” Thomas smiled.

“Eh, a girl does what she can, y’know?” she smirked. “So what’s up?”

Here Thomas’ face fell. “Well, I was just trying to buy this muffin but I don’t actually have any money on me,” he said sheepishly

The girl just smiled and pulled a few dollars out of her vest and slapped them on the table. “Two please.”

Ditzy smiled and handed them both muffins, gladly accepting the money. Thomas smiled at the girl kindly. “You really didn’t have to do that.”

“Maybe not. But I _wanted_ to.” the girl smiled. “Any chance I have to show a newcomer some Wondercolt pride, I’m willing to take it. Besides, it’s for a good cause.” Thomas just smiled. “Now how about that tour?”

Thomas smiled, gesturing with his muffin. “After you.”

The girl smirked and walked ahead, leading the way. “By the way, I don’t think I caught your name.”

Thomas realized she was right and smiled. “Oh, my name’s Thomas.”

The girl seemed surprised by the name, almost as though it didn’t seem normal for this area, but shrugged it off. “Sunset Shimmer. Good to meet you.”

Thomas seemed surprised as well. “Oh. So _you’re_ Sunset Shimmer.”

That stopped Sunset dead in her tracks, as if she were concerned about something. “You know me?”

“I saw your name in the award case. You won a lot of awards for some sort of dance thing.” Thomas barely even noticed that Sunset seemed upset about this being brought up. “Everyone here must really like you if you can win that many awards. You must be a real shining example for this school.”

“Last time I won that was a long time ago Thomas.” Sunset shrugged, nibbling at her muffin.

“Still, that many achievements must be a great source of pride for-”

“Thomas…” Sunset interrupted. “I hope you don’t mind, but I remember those days well enough without people reminding me.”

Thomas wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but he shrugged anyway. “I see.” He was still confused, but decided to leave it alone for now.

Sunset just sighed and wolfed down her muffin in what appeared to be three large bites. “Uh anyway, how about we start in the cafeteria?”

“Café-what?”

Sunset glanced back at Thomas with a weird look on her face. “Cafeteria. You know what that is, don’t you?”

“Uh yes, of course. I just didn’t hear you properly.” Thomas knew he was coming up with that excuse right off the bat, but it was better than nothing.

It was clear Sunset was puzzled, but she shrugged and led the way to the large lunchroom; tables everywhere with large school flags lining the walls, and faculty cleaning up and preparing food for the next day’s breakfast and lunch. “Little heads-up; don’t judge the food too soon. My friend Applejack’s granny is the head chef, and she is a master.”

After that, the two made their way around the school, finally arriving at the door to the library where they found themselves stopped by a trio of girls; one of whom, with pale blue skin, purple eyes, and white hair, Sunset apparently recognized. “Halt! You have entered the domain of the Great and Powerful Trixie! Now I ask, who goes there?”

Sunset rolled her eyes in bemusement. “Trixie, knock it off. It’s me; lemme in.”

“I wasn’t talking to you Sunset Shimmer,” Trixie argued, walking past her. “I’m talking to you. So I ask again; who goes there?”

Thomas was a bit confused, but smiled and extended his free hand. “I’m Thomas; how do you do?”

Sunset just shrugged, walking past Thomas to look Trixie in the eye. “Look, Trixie, I’m giving Thomas here a tour of the school, so are you gonna let us in or what?”

Trixie just smiled mischievously and looked at her fingernails. “Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.”

Sunset just rolled her eyes. “Ugh. Cmon Thomas, we can come back when she gets bored and leaves.” Thomas was about to agree and started walking away with her when he heard a loud growling behind him. He was surprised and a bit scared, until he looked at Trixie holding her stomach in a sort of pain; she must've been hungry.

He looked down and saw he still hadn’t eaten the muffin he’d gotten from Ditzy. He smiled (a bit wickedly as he dropped something on the ground in front of Trixie) and walked forward, handing it forward. “Here you are.”

Sunset was surprised. Even moreso when Trixie moved to accept. “Oh. Well, thank you.” Thomas smiled right back as he and Sunset walked into the library.

“That was awfully nice of you.” Sunset smiled.

Thomas just shrugged as he looked around. “Well, I’m of the mind that there’s always room for being nice whenever you can.” Suddenly something near Trixie resounded with a loud crack, which spooked them both until Thomas started laughing; he’d found a small firecracker in the cafeteria and had dropped it for Trixie to step on. “Of course, it never hurts to be a bit cheeky every now and then either.”

Sunset started laughing as well; what she would give to see the look on Trixie’s face right now. “Oho man. You’re a fun guy, Thomas.”

“I do my best. Though not everyone appreciates my sense of humor.” Thomas snickered; he’d never forget the time Gordon got back at him for his teasing by taking off with the express whilst Thomas was still coupled on behind.

Sunset smirked as she looked back at the door to see an angry Trixie at the door. “Clearly. You fast?”

“I do my best.” Thomas shrugged.

“Now would be a good time to prove it. Cmon, there’s another door over here.” Without any further warning, Sunset quickly ran across the library toward another door. Thomas was worried; he’d never had to run with this body, but judging from the expression on Trixie’s face, he didn’t have much choice. Quickly picking up his feet, he raced after Sunset as best he could. He lost his balance a few times but finally, he’d managed to keep a good pace and catch up with Sunset, hiding in a classroom to allow Trixie to dash past.

They were both out of breath, but they still laughed at what had just happened. “Aw man, did you see her face?!” Sunset laughed.

Thomas just laughed harder. “I know. Whoo, cinders and ashes.” He noticed Sunset’s face twist a bit when he said that, so he quickly came up with an excuse. “It’s uh… it’s just a little catchphrase I picked up back home. I use it whenever I’m scared or something funny happens.” Sunset was still confused about the origin of this phrase but shrugged it off as his own brand of oddness. “Anyway, I know you were told to, but thank you again for showing me around.”

Sunset smiled as she stood up and brushed her skirt off. “Well, it wasn’t just because I was told. I volunteered. If it meant helping someone out, it’s no real problem. We’ve had a lot of newcomers recently, so this is the best way to get to know them. Anyway, I’m glad I volunteered. You’re a nice guy. A little weird, but you’ve got a great sense of humor.”

Thomas blushed a bit as he stood up. He’d gotten this sort of praise from passengers and his friends plenty of times, but it felt different now that he was human as well. “Oh. Well, thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Frankly, this has probably been the best tour I’ve given so far.” Sunset shrugged. She could tell from Thomas’s expression what he was about to say and raised her hand. “Don’t ask.” Thomas just gave a polite chuckle and scratched his head, unsure of what to do next. Sunset cleared her throat and smiled. “So uh, listen; I was gonna meet some friends at a café down the street after school. Do you wanna come along? Uh, if you’re not too busy, I mean.”

Thomas just smiled; he hadn’t even been in this world for a whole day and already he’d made a friend who was inviting him to meet her other friends. “I’d love to.”

“Great. Cmon, it’s kind of a hike from here, but we should make it in time if we leave now.” Sunset smiled, leading the way. “I think you’re gonna like my friends. They’ve all got their own special brand of crazy but that’s what makes them endearing. I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of friends.”

“If they’re your friends, I can already tell I’m going to like them.” Thomas smiled.

Sunset blushed bright red at that, trying her best to hide it with her hair. “Flatterer.”


	5. Investigation

The city watering hole colloquially known as Sugarcube Corner was lively as ever and Sunset’s friends were at their usual table near the door. Twilight was still looking over the tracking device to decipher what the gold glow meant with her mind on that whistle she heard, Rarity was doing her nails, Fluttershy was snuggling Spike and a bunny, Pinkie was snacking on candy from her pocket, and Rainbow and Applejack were arm-wrestling (with AJ going easy on her and not using her Geode power).

“Cmon now Dash, are ya even tryin’ here?” Applejack goaded. Rainbow just growled as she tried even harder to push Applejack’s hand down.

Finally, the door opened with a jingle of the bell as Sunset walked in, followed by a boy in all blue who would soon make himself known to the girls as Thomas. “Hey girls!”

“Sunset, there ya are!” Applejack smiled before she dropped Rainbow’s hand to the table without even looking.

“Oh come on!” Rainbow yelled angrily. “That is _so_ not fair!”

Sunset just laughed. “Face it Dash; no matter how many times you try, you’re never gonna beat Applejack.”

“Oh, she’ll keep trying; believe me,” Thomas smirked. “She seems about as stubborn as my friend Gordon.”

“He difficult?” Sunset asked.

“Whew. Impossible is more like it.” Thomas smirked. “I remember one day when he was working at a waste dump and every time someone came with more, he’d hide because he didn’t want anyone to see him. It kept on going until he was trapped in the back.” He sighed as he walked over to the table. “Still in all, he put it right. He’s a good sort; I think you’d like him.”

Sunset smiled. “If he’s even half as friendly as you, I _know_ we would.”

Thomas smirked and blushed pink. “Flatterer.” Sunset chuckled at that; the callback really cracked her up.

Twilight couldn’t help it; this was too easy. “So… mind introducing us to your new boyfriend, Sunset?”

Sunset and Thomas both blushed bright red at this. “T-Twilight! He’s _not_ my boyfriend!”

“Denying it like _that_ makes you all the more suspect, Darling~” Rarity smiled.

Sunset just blushed more as she and Thomas sat down. “Cmon Rarity, he only just got to the school before last period. If he _was_ my boyfriend by now, he’d have to have been pretty ambitious.”

“Well, either way, I’m with Twilight.” Rainbow shrugged. “You gonna introduce us or are we just gonna have to guess his name?”

“Oh right, sorry.” Thomas nodded. “Uh, I’m Thomas. Thomas Billinton.”

“‘Billinton’? Any relation to the locomotive designer _L. B._ Billinton?” Twilight asked.

“Uh, fairly distant but yes.” Technically, he wasn’t lying; the closest Thomas had ever gotten to his designer was when he introduced himself as the man who drew up his schematics.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Twilight Sparkle.” Thomas remembered seeing that name in the trophy case as well, but she didn’t seem like one to win contests like Sunset.

“He-hey, nice badge,” Rainbow smirked.

Thomas smiled. “Thanks. I’m really proud of it.”

Rainbow smiled right back. “Name’s Rainbow Dash; captain of pretty much every sports team for the Canterlot Wondercolts. You name it, I’m in charge.” She rolled a soccer ball out from under the couch and kicked it up into her hand. “You play anything?”

“No, but I am a big football fan.” Thomas smiled.

Rainbow laughed. “Seriously? You don’t seem like the kind of guy who likes violent games like that.”

Thomas was confused, but then he remembered something; the term football in America meant a very different thing from what it meant in England. Thankfully, he didn’t have to be the one to say it. “I’m sure he means _English_ football, Rainbow Dash.” Rarity explained on his behalf. “Rather what we would call soccer.”

“Ohh. Okay, gotcha.” Rainbow smiled, bouncing the ball on her foot. Then she smirked and angled her foot. “Think fast!”

“Huh?” Thomas looked just in time to catch the ball with his forehead. “OOF!”

“Oh! Sorry, Thomas.” Rainbow apologized as her ball bounced into her hands.

“I should hope so too, Rainbow Dash!” Rarity scolded moving to his side. “Are you alright?”

Thomas groaned and unconsciously shook his head clear; a sensation that freaked him out for a moment before he remembered his circumstances. “Yes. Yes, I’m fine. Thank you, um…?”

“Rarity.”

Thomas smiled. “Pretty name.”

Suddenly Pinkie Pie popped up in front of him, her face upside down. “Hi, there! I’m Pinkie Pie! So nice to meet another new student! Ooh! I should totally throw you a Welcome to Canterlot High Party!” she said quickly.

The other girls just rolled their eyes at Pinkie’s usual hyperactivity. “I’d love one.” But that comment from Thomas surprised them. “We have plenty of parties where I’m from.”

Pinkie was so happy. “Really?! Is there one every day?”

“Whew. Certainly feels like it, but no.” smiled Thomas. “Usually it’s just birthdays and holidays, but it’s still very fun to help set them up.”

“Sure sounds like it.” Applejack smiled. “Howdy. Name’s Applejack.”

“Hello there.” Thomas smiled, though he wasn’t prepared for the strong slap on the back he got from her, knocking the wind out of him. “Whew! Oh my.”

“Oops. Sorry. Sometimes Ah don’t know my own strength.” Applejack smiled. “Guess it’s just my upbringin’ on my family ranch. Still, I felt a little muscle on that back o’ yours. Yer a hard-worker too, ain’t ya?”

Thomas smiled proudly. “Sure am. I’m hard at work; day-in, day-out. And I don’t stop until the work is done.”

Twilight seemed impressed. “Don’t you take breaks?”

Thomas shrugged. “Every now and then, yes. But my friends and I have a philosophy: We must be Responsible, Reliable, and Really Useful. And you can’t exactly be useful if you’re doing nothing.”

Applejack chuckled. “Ah like the cut o’ yer jib, partner.” Thomas couldn’t help but think Applejack sounded like the tumbleweed near the Magic Buffers, which was odd to him for several reasons.

At any rate, he soon locked his eyes on Fluttershy down at the end of the couch, who slipped away as best she could and tried to hide under her hair. Thomas was a bit confused but smiled when he saw the bunny in her hands. “Hello there. That’s a very nice bunny.”

Fluttershy slowly opened up and smiled. “Oh. Um, thank you,” she said quietly as ever. “Do um, do you like animals?”

Thomas smiled. “Oh yes, my friends and I work with animals all the time. Matter of fact, there’s a forest my friend Henry visits every chance he can, and it’s full of animals.”

Fluttershy’s face immediately brightened and she came out from behind her hair. “Really? Oh, they must be so cute.”

“Oh, they are. They are.” Thomas smiled. “Henry loves the forest. He usually goes there for peace and quiet when the work gets to be too much. But I’m going on a tangent; what’s your name?”

“Oh. Um, I’m Fluttershy,” she said happily.

“Nice to meet you all.” Thomas smiled.

“And you. But now that introductions are out of the way, I must insist that we do something about this ensemble of yours.” Rarity said seriously.

Thomas was confused. “What, my clothes? What’s wrong with them?”

“And here we go…” Rainbow muttered.

“Your clothes clash with each other in every way I can think of. I mean this vest looks more than a bit ridiculous and the shoes- ugh, I don’t even know where to begin.” Thomas was a bit intimidated as Rarity circled him, dissecting his entire outfit. “And the badge-”

“Is something that makes him really proud,” Sunset interjected. “So, no touchy.” Thomas was quite happy to have someone support his status as NWR #1, even if they didn’t know that’s what they were supporting.

“Well, I suppose so but discounting that, something must be done about this whistle.” Rarity argued, lifting the charm created from Thomas’s steam-whistle… which started spilling something painfully familiar.

“ _Bust my buffers; Mr. Conductor’s Gold Dust!_ ” Thomas thought amazed. It made a certain sense; the Conductor family kept Gold Dust in their whistles, so it made sense for Thomas to have some in his.

Rarity, however, didn’t know about the properties of the magic dust as she caught it in her hand. “I mean really, look at this; it’s practically falling apart.”

Applejack stood up and looked the whistle over herself. “Doesn’t look too bad to me.”

“Well then, how do you explain this?” Rarity asked, holding up her handful of Gold Dust.

“Ooh! Maybe it’s confetti.” smiled Pinkie.

The others weren’t too sure about that, but they didn’t know what to say until Twilight finally got her tracker working again and was surprised to find it glowing gold again. And it was pointing straight for the Gold Dust in Rarity’s hand. “I don’t think so, girls.” She slowly approached and saw the gold light split on the tracker’s screen; one light pointed to the dust in Rarity’s hand and the other pointed right at Thomas’ whistle.

This drew the attention of all the girls, which gave Thomas the perfect opportunity for a plan. Quickly, he poured some Gold Dust out into one hand and used his whistle to draw the dust in Rarity’s hand back into it without her noticing. Once that was done, he quickly replaced the dust in his other hand and quickly slunk away… until Sunset noticed. “Hey, wait! What’re you doing?”

“Uh sorry, have to use the restroom.” And it suddenly felt like he’d need it; his head became very light and as he looked down at his hands, he saw something he wasn’t expecting; some sort of orange substance climbing up down his fingers towards his hands… and it almost looked like rust. But Thomas knew that was impossible; humans didn’t rust… but then he remembered something: he wasn’t really a human; he was a tank engine in a human’s body.

Quickly he jammed his hands into his pockets to avoid drawing any attention to the rust and moved toward the bathroom. He took one step and immediately fell on the ground on his side. “ _Thomas!_ ” He could barely hear anything, but he could still tell that was Sunset.

But that wasn’t the only thing he heard; he also heard a shrill whistle in his ear… a painfully familiar one at that. “L- Lady?”


	6. Explanations

“Thoroughly unacceptable!” Mr. Conductor was worried about this; he knew Sir Topham Hatt would be angry about his sending Thomas away on such a dangerous assignment without consulting the controller, but he had to tell him something.

“Sir please, Thomas _has_ to do this,” he explained. “If he doesn’t find Lady, Sodor and Shining Time will both be destroyed, along with countless other worlds.”

“And if he’s destroyed in the process, it won’t matter.” Sir Topham Hatt argued. “No-no, I want Thomas back on Sodor and back on his branch line immediately.” With that, he picked up his hat and started out of his office.

“We don’t know who’s doing this, Sir!” Mr. Conductor limped to urgently to stop him. “For all Burnett and I know, it could be Diesel 10 again.”

“Preposterous. Diesel 10’s been much kinder ever since I had the Dieselworks restored.” Sir Topham argued.

“Has he?” Mr. Conductor argued, stopping Sir Topham Hatt in his tracks. “He almost destroyed Lady once before, and he looked for her for years after that to finish the job. Maybe he’s just been waiting so he can destroy Lady this whole time.”

Sir Topham chuckled a bit. “Your theory has a certain logic to it Mr. Conductor, but what it lacks is proof.”

Mr. Conductor coughed a bit before he could answer. “My condition isn’t proof enough? Without Lady on the Magic Railway, I’ll just keep deteriorating until I disappear. And even then, if you want more proof, I’d be more than willing to take you to the Dieselworks. If we find Diesel 10 there, then I’m wrong and I’ll find Thomas and Lady personally. But I don’t think it will have to come to that.”

“Very well then.” Sir Topham Hatt agreed. “To the Dieselworks, Mr. Conductor.”

“Gladly.” With one blow on his whistle, both he and Sir Topham Hatt disappeared from the controller’s office and appeared in the shunting yard of the Vicarstown Dieselworks.

Slowly, the two made their way inside toward Diesel 10’s shed on the upper level. “Diesel 10? Are you there?” Sir Topham Hatt called, but no reply came. He pressed the button for the doors, and they slowly opened, revealing that the shed was in fact empty. The two men’s suspicions mounted as they saw a workman nearby. “Uh I say, where is Diesel 10? I need to speak to him.”

The workman just shrugged. “I wish I knew. He hasn’t been here for at least a week.”

“Did he say where he was going?” asked Mr. Conductor.

The workman looked around contemplatively. “Uh, I think he said he was going to… Oh, that’s right; he said he was heading for a grotto past the Big Dipper. Took Splatter and Dodge with him too.”

With that, he left for work, leaving the two men alone to think. “The Big Dipper is the bridge Diesel 10 fell from when you found Lady.” Sir Topham Hatt remembered.

“And the grotto is the last possible place to stop before the Magic Buffers.” Mr. Conductor added.

Sir Topham adjusted his hat in concern. “Very well, Mr. Conductor. You’ve convinced me; Diesel 10 is on the top of the suspect list. But that still doesn’t mean Thomas can handle this himself.”

“Well sir, nothing is stopping you from sending some of the other engines to help him.” Mr. Conductor shrugged.

“No, that’s not a good idea. They still have their roles on this railway.” Sir Topham argued.

“Maybe, but you have several other engines who could easily pick up the slack if any of your other engines go through the buffers.” Mr. Conductor brought up. “After all, Rosie _is_ running Thomas’ branch line while he’s gone. You could easily have Charlie or Stafford fill in for Percy and send at least _him_ through the buffers.”

Sir Topham Hatt ran his hand over his head as he thought, but shrugged. “I’ll need to get to my office; see what I can do.”

“Easily done.” Another blow of his whistle and Mr. Conductor had warped himself and Sir Topham Hatt back to Knapford Station, both thankful it was a quiet day in the station.

Sir Topham Hatt walked back to his office as Mr. Conductor prepared for the return trip to Shining Time, but before he left, Sir Topham looked over at him. “Mr. Conductor?” The railwayman looked over his shoulder at the controller who had a concerned look on his face. “If this _is_ Diesel 10’s doing again, do you think Thomas is up to the task of defeating him?”

Mr. Conductor’s face fell a bit before he looked straight at the controller with a confident smile. “Absolutely. After all, he’s not your number one for nothing.” With that, he blew his whistle and disappeared. Sir Topham smiled as he went into his office… and prayed Mr. Conductor was right.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight’s laboratory door burst open as the girls carried Thomas in and Applejack laid him on an empty table, where Twilight quickly hooked up various instruments. At this point, the brown on Thomas’ hands had spread up his arms to his neck and it had seriously scared the girls, as well as his skin losing all blue as he turned sheer sickly white.

“Just so you guys know, I haven’t used any of my instruments to examine a lifeform since Spike,” Twilight said quickly.

“Why’d you examine Spike?” asked Sunset.

“I wanted to see if I could find out exactly what the Equestrian Magic from the Friendship Games did to him to let him talk.” Twilight explained, looking over Thomas’s readings. “I’ll show you the results once we save Thomas’s life. As soon as I figure out how.”

“You mean you’re not sure?” asked Rainbow.

“Look at him!” Twilight insisted. “When’s the last time Equestrian Magic did something like _this_ to a person?” Quickly, she slipped over and gently removed some of the rust from Thomas’ right hand and placed it under her microscope for examination where she found something bizarre. “Whoa. This definitely doesn’t make sense.”

“What is it?” asked Sunset.

“This looks like fairly normal skin if you don’t look too close, but look at this.” Twilight placed a small drop of chemicals on the slide from an eye-dropper and watched as the material turned bright red. “Somehow Thomas’ skin is covered in iron oxide.”

Applejack’s head shot up when she heard that. “Wait a sec. Are you tellin’ us that Thomas is… rustin’ away?”

“Apparently.” Twilight shrugged. “The question is how do we stop it?”

“Only one way to find out that I can think of.” Sunset shrugged. Without hesitation, she touched her Geode and reached her hand to Thomas’.

“Whoa-whoa-whoa, wait,” Twilight argued. “We don’t know if this… whatever it is… is infectious. For all we know, we _all_ might be rusting away into nothing.”

“Well, if anyone else has a better idea, I’m all ears,” Sunset said loudly.

“Uh, I think I might have an idea.” Rainbow was pointing right at Thomas’ throat, on which was resting his whistle… and the skin in a circle around it wasn’t rusting at all.

“His whistle?” asked Spike.

Then Twilight realized it and snapped her fingers. “Not the whistle. The dust _inside_ it.” Quickly, Twilight grabbed the whistle and poured a small amount of Gold Dust out into her hand, holding it up to her magic detector which confirmed what she theorized at Sugarcube Corner. “I thought so. This dust has some sort of magical properties.”

“And you think it’ll cure Thomas?” asked Rarity.

Twilight checked her readings and was more than a bit concerned. “At this point, I’m willing to try anything. His vitals are bottoming out. If this doesn’t stabilize him even the smallest bit, he’s doomed.” Without much more fanfare, she tossed the Gold Dust out over Thomas and it floated over him before sinking into his body… which made the rust recede and brought the color back to his face. Twilight looked back at her readings and she smiled. “It’s working. His vitals are stabilizing.” And sure enough, once his readings were level again, Thomas slowly groaned himself awake.

“Ugh. Oh, cinders and ashes.” The girls were confused at that, except for Sunset; she knew his story about that. “Ugh, what happened to me?”

“You okay?” Thomas’ vision was still blurry, so he couldn’t see who asked him that.

“Yes, yes I’m okay.” Suddenly his vision cleared and he realized who, or rather, _what_ he was talking to. “Aah! Talking dog!” He suddenly fell off the table with a loud thud, tangling himself in wires and letting his whistle drop into the center of his chest. Quickly he checked his whistle and found it was short a significant portion of Gold Dust. “Oh, botheration. What happened? Where am I?”

“You’re at my house. You passed out at Sugarcube Corner.” Twilight explained. “And your hands were covered in rust.”

Thomas quickly remembered that and checked his hands, happy to see the rust was gone. “Yeah so, you wanna explain what that was all about?” asked Rainbow. “How did that dust cure you?”

Thomas was stunned when she said this. “You used my Gold Dust? And it cured me?”

“Yeah, somehow,” said Twilight. “Still not completely sure how, but I have a pretty good theory.” She lifted her amulet to show him. “I built this device to detect magic and whenever it’s close to that dust in your whistle, it lights it up like a Christmas tree. So I have to ask… where did you find magic?”

Thomas was more surprised about what she said before to understand. “You believe in magic?”

“Rather hard not to, darling.” Rarity touched her own Geode and created a large diamond shield on her arm from thin air, astounding Thomas.

“Cinders and ashes!” he said in amazement. Then he glanced at the wall-clock and was terrified; it was already 6 in the evening, and he still had to complete his mission from Mr. Conductor. “I’m- I’m sorry. I have to go.”

“What? Thomas, wait!” Sunset tried to stop him, but he’d already grabbed his backpack from the side of the room and dashed to the door, which he swiftly opened.

“I’m sorry, but I have something to do to prevent something like this from happening again, only worse.” Without any more fanfare, he dashed out the door and ran down the street as fast as his legs would carry him.

Rainbow quickly dashed out the door after him as she saw him around a corner. “Don’t worry girls; I got this!” Quickly she grabbed her own geode and dashed down the street after him, leaving a rainbow-colored streak in her wake. She saw Thomas turn a corner just before she caught up to him and when she turned the same corner, she was surprised to find no sign of him. “What the-? Where’d he go?”

Then she heard something; a shrill whistle coming from the park right behind her, as Thomas had doubled back. She looked just in time to see Thomas disappear in a twinkling cloud of Gold Dust, leaving a trail of residue on the concrete. Just then, the other girls ran over with expressions of amazement on their faces as they had all seen Thomas’ disappearance as well. “Where’d he go?” asked Twilight.

“I don’t know. But I think we just found out another power that dust has.” Rainbow said, scrapping the residue off the concrete. “What _is_ this stuff anyway?”

“I’m not sure. But we need to find out.” Twilight said assuredly. “Maybe if we do, we can figure out who Thomas is, where he’s from, and what he’s here for.”

Suddenly Rainbow smiled as if she’d just had a clever idea. “I think I’ve got it. But I’m gonna need a whistle.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thomas had teleported himself to the school’s courtyard, now quiet and pitch-black aside from the light of the stars and moon and the chirping of crickets in the brush. He knew that if he had arrived at this school from the Magic Railway, then Lady must have as well. He pushed hard against the glass doors only to find them locked, so he peered inside trying to focus through the blackness. “Lady! Lady, where are you? It’s me, Thomas!” No one replied, and there was no sign of anyone inside.

Thomas turned against the door and dropped to a fetal position against the door in defeat. He stared out at the courtyard, not knowing what to do now. Mr. Conductor would’ve told Sir Topham Hatt and the other engines by now and they were all probably wondering where he was or if he was okay. He knew Sir Topham Hatt would be cross with him for leaving without saying anything when he should’ve been back to running his branchline day after tomorrow. He’d hoped he would’ve been able to find Lady before it got dark so they could head home together, but it was too late for that plan to work.

Maybe Lady wasn’t even in this world in the first place. Maybe the Gold Dust was mistaken and Lady was in another world altogether. He didn’t even know anymore and began to question his role here in itself. “Maybe Mr. Conductor was wrong; I can’t do this. He should’ve sent Percy or Gordon; they probably would’ve found her long before I ever could.” Thomas buried his face in his legs and arms and started quietly weeping. He felt like such a fool getting distracted from his mission to find Lady… but if he hadn’t, he would never have met Sunset and her friends… who were all so nice, even saving him from rusting away. Coming to Canterlot might not have been such a bad thing after all, but he still thought Lady wasn’t here after all. “What were you thinking Thomas? This sort of job is far too big, even for you. There are plenty of other engines back home who could handle this.”

He decided to head home as he stood and walked slowly toward the statue plinth… until he heard the same high-pitched whistle he did before he passed out at Sugarcube Corner: Lady’s whistle. And it was coming from inside the school. Thomas quickly turned toward the door when he heard the whistle… causing a loud rattle inside his backpack. Then it hit him; if he still had his whistle when he was brought to this world, then maybe he also had his headlamp. Quickly he checked and found that he did indeed have the white lantern that rested on his bufferbeam as an engine.

He held the lamp by the handle on the top and turned it on, looking around the courtyard. He looked and found an open window in what Thomas remembered as a hallway. Quickly he ran toward it and clambered through, closing the window behind him before he dashed through the abandoned building. He could hear windchimes echoing through the hallways and did his best to follow them until he lost track of them in the library.

He was cross with himself for losing the trail that might’ve led him to Lady, but then his lamp’s light caught something on the ground; something familiar. He moved closer and smiled as he saw what it was; Gold Dust. “So you _are_ here.”


	7. Game Face

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to record this Twilight?” The girls were in the school music room, having finished using their morning free period for band practice and were now experimenting with the little Gold Dust they could gather from Thomas’ disappearance last night. They had poured the Gold Dust into a small metal whistle which Rainbow Dash had borrowed from a gym-coach and was now wearing around her neck… looking at Twilight setting up a camcorder not far from her.

“Don’t worry Rainbow, this tape is just for documentation purposes,” Twilight assured. “We’re the only ones who’ll see it.” Quickly, the girls all moved into the frame of the camera and Spike pressed the record button on the camera.

“Okay, so this is Unknown Magic Gold Dust Whistle test 1,” Twilight said officially. “Now, first question; how exactly does this work?”

“Well, if it’s anything like Equestrian teleportation, you probably just focus on where you want to end up and then blow the whistle.” Sunset seemed unenthusiastic about this test; almost like she had something else on her mind.

“Sounds easy enough.” Twilight shrugged. “Let’s just keep this simple then; Rainbow, I want you to use the dust to teleport from Point A; where you’re standing, to Point B; exactly three feet to your left.”

“Got it.” Rainbow nodded. With no more argument, she placed the whistle in her mouth and gave it a strong blow, causing her to disappear in gold sparkles and staticky shocks before she reappeared where Twilight told her to, which amazed everyone.

“Incredible.” Twilight was rightly amazed; she had no idea what to say about this working. “A-Alright, try a return trip.”

Rainbow quickly put the whistle in her mouth and blew again, only to be partly surrounded in staticky Gold Dust, but not move an inch. She was confused and tried again, only to get the same results. “What the-? Why isn’t it working?”

“Maybe it has somethin’ to do with that fritzin’ out thing.” Applejack suggested.

Rainbow checked the whistle and smiled at what she saw. “Ah, here’s the problem; out of dust.”

“Gonna be hard to find more.” Sunset shrugged in disinterest.

Twilight shifted her attention to her friend and laid a hand on her shoulder. “You’re still worried about Thomas, aren’t you?”

Sunset sighed as she stood up, walking to the door. “Yeah. It’s just- We don’t know what range this dust stuff has. For all we know, he could be anywhere in town right now, maybe even anywhere in the world.”

“Relax Sunset,” Rainbow assured. “If he _is_ from another magic world, then his way home must be in the statue like the door to Equestria, so there’s no way he’s left Canterlot. And with all of us looking, there’s no way we’ll miss him.”

“I hope so.” Sunset shrugged. She checked her watch and stood, packing her guitar and hiding it in a locker in the back of the room. “Well, we’d better get going before class starts.” And with that, the girls all went their separate ways to attend classes, all keeping an eye out for Thomas as they attended classes.

It wasn’t until Rainbow Dash walked out of the locker room to the soccer field when she found something ever-present in such an athletic school; the soccer team surrounding another athletic ace at school named Spitfire, who was currently ripping into a new guy with her usual speech about how “if you were the best, you’d already be on the team”; Rainbow had heard it about a thousand times already.

Normally she wouldn’t have thought twice about this sort of thing until she heard Spitfire say something that drew her attention. “You think just because you’ve got that stupid badge, that makes you a number 1?”

As soon as she heard that, she charged into the team and started moving them to the sides. “Alright people, comin’ through; make a hole.” Once she worked her way through the crowd, she found her hunch was right; it was Thomas that Spitfire was ripping into. “Thomas?!”

Thomas looked over at her and smiled broadly. “Rainbow Dash! Wonderful to see you again.”

Rainbow just raised a hand to cut him off. “Save the small talk, for now, bud; what’re you doing here?”

“Principal Celestia put me in this class.” Thomas shrugged. “Far be it from me to argue.”

“You know this guy, Cap?” Rainbow knew that voice; Soarin, a fellow player.

“Yeah, Sunset introduced us yesterday.” she shrugged vaguely.

“Cool. So you think he’d make a good addition to the team?” Rainbow seemed confused. “I mean, y’know a few of us are graduating this year so the soccer team needs some new recruits.”

“Well, I doubt he’s gonna be among ‘em.” Fleetfoot laughed. “You saw how he ate it just tryin’ to dribble.” And here was the source of the ribbing; Thomas apparently sucked at soccer.

“Hey, lay off,” Rainbow ordered. “If he’s got the basics for dribbling down, I doubt it’ll be long before he’s runnin’ circles around every last one of you.”

Spitfire just laughed. “Yeah well, you’ll forgive me if I don’t hold my breath. We don’t even have any room on the team right now. And even if we did, we sure don’t need scrawny, clumsy airheads like ol’ Topsy Tommy here.” Some of the others laughed too, but Soarin just shook his head in what looked like pity as Rainbow just gasped and stepped forward.

“Ohoho, ohh man,” she said simply. “Okay, that’s it, Spitfire. No more playin’; it is on like Donkey Kong! 2-on-5, right here, right… uh…” Rainbow quickly whistled over to the coach. “Yo! Coach Fire Streak, how long till the game?”

“Fifteen minutes!”

“Alright, just gimme fifteen minutes to teach Thomas everything I know and we will crush you. And when we do, you lay off him. Deal?”

“Deal,” Spitfire smirked, grabbing hands with the captain. “Alright Wondercolts, you heard the captain; she’s teachin’ the kid everything she knows, so no one goes easy on either of them! Fleetfoot, High Winds; you’re on offense with me. Silver Zoom, you’re on defense. Soarin-”

“-is spectating and handing off his goalie position to Thunderlane,” Soarin said simply and stepped off to the side of the field.

“Wha- Soarin!” Spitfire yelled.

“Hey, we all know how aggressively Dash plays when she’s ticked and I don’t wanna be on the receiving end of that.” Soarin excused. “And let’s face it; you kinda deserve the butt-kicking you’re about to get for making her say ‘on like Donkey Kong’.”

Spitfire growled but sighed. “Alright fine. Thunderlane, you’re on the goal. Let’s do this, Wondercolts!”

“Hooah!” her team yelled as they moved to one side of the field.

Rainbow and Thomas quickly moved to the other side and Rainbow quickly dropped the ball on the grass right in front of Thomas. “Alright, how much do you know?”

“Uh sorry, can I just backtrack and bring up that I haven’t ever actually played football before?” Thomas asked. “I mean, I’ve seen my fair share of games, but I’ve never been on the pitch.”

“Don’t worry Thomas; you’re under the team captain’s wing now,” Rainbow smirked, incredibly tempted to be literal and unfurl the wings her geode gave her, but she knew that would just scare him so she kept it simple and metaphoric. “You give me fifteen minutes; I’ll turn you into a pro. Lesson number one; don’t let anything they said get to you. Spitfire can be pretty harsh at first, but once you get to know her, she’s actually not that bad. And if you prove to her that you can hold your own on this field, you’re on her good list.” With that, she placed her foot on top of the ball and smirked. “Now, let’s start off with the basics okay?”

Once the fifteen minutes had passed, Thomas had learned all he could, and he and Rainbow had come up with their strategy just in time to reach the center of the field… where Thomas saw a small crowd had gathered to see this wager play out. Thankfully, he didn’t see any of Rainbow’s other friends in the stands, so they were probably still in class. Quickly, his attention shifted back to Coach Fire Streak as he walked to the center of the field with the ball in his hand. “Alright, this is gonna be a simple ten-minute game; highest score wins! I see any foul play, you’re off the field! Let’s rock n’ roll!” Fire Streak yelled. With that, he placed the ball in the middle circle of the field and walked off where he blew his whistle. Once it was blown, Rainbow dropped down and shot the ball over to Thomas who quickly grabbed it in his feet and started dribbling it as he ran for the goal before he tried to kick it, only for it to bounce off the top-bar and shoot back into play far behind him or Rainbow.

Spitfire quickly moved to capitalize only for Rainbow to slide and kick it over to Thomas who tried the kick again, landing it just short of the goal… but close enough for Rainbow to zip over to it and kick it right past Thunderlane. Soon enough, the field was alive with the sounds of kids racing about the field and the smell of grass blood as Rainbow capitalized on Thomas’ positioning of the ball and shooting it into the goal.

At halftime, Thomas had earned him and Rainbow a few fouls for improper following of the rules and Thomas heard Misty Fly joking with Fleetfoot about Thomas’ lack of skill, but Thomas remembered the wise words of his friend Porter; “ _Water off a duck’s back_ ” and didn’t let it bother him.

Soon enough, the game was all tied up at nine points for each team and only one minute left on the clock. “Alright Thomas, we’re almost done here. Still anyone’s game, but now it’s all you.”

Thomas wasn’t sure what Rainbow meant by that. “What?”

“Let’s face it; I’ve been doing most of the work out there and earning us these points.” Rainbow shrugged. “Now it’s your turn; just get the ball up close to the goal and shoot it in with everything you’ve got.”

“But- But I can’t do that! I haven’t even gotten anywhere _close_ to the goal.” Thomas excused.

“Oh yeah? Well then, how would you explain what’s been happening out there?” Rainbow asked. “I mean, I’m awesome but even _I_ would struggle with five-on-one odds. Having you out there with me? That’s made all the difference.” Thomas still wasn’t sure so Rainbow placed a hand on his shoulder. “Look, I’m gonna give you the advice my coach gave me when I first picked up sports; if you really wanna get the ball in perfectly, you just gotta go for it. No one can teach you to make the shot when you get the chance. Once you reach that point, it’s your call if you wanna make the shot.”

Thomas nodded and smiled, still unsure if he could make this but he stood strong. “I’ll do my best.”

“That’s the spirit. Alright, I’ll keep them off you as best I can; you just get that ball in the goal no matter what.” Rainbow nodded. “And if you can nail the shot within the last few seconds of the game, then I guarantee you there is no way Spitfire won’t think you deserve to be out here.”

Thomas nodded as the coach brought the ball out for the last time. “Alright people, this is pretty much match-point; whoever gets this ball in the other guy’s goal first wins.” He placed the ball and retreated before he smiled with his whistle in his mouth. “Let’s do this!” One blare of the whistle and the game started; Thomas quickly took the ball and ran with it as fast as he could for the enemy goal with Rainbow holding up her side by covering his side.

Thomas glanced at the clock and saw there were only forty seconds left so he had to step it up… but then Silver Zoom zipped in and bounced the ball away from him before he kicked it to Spitfire who started running for Thomas’ goal. Thinking fast, Thomas dashed around Spitfire’s team and ran right out in front of her, taking the ball for himself with only one foot. “Thanks very much.” He smirked as he dashed away back toward the other goal. Another much quicker glance at the clock revealed that he had blown twenty-five seconds getting the ball back and another ten dashing back toward the other goal, meaning he was still at least half a yard from the goal with only five seconds left on the clock.

Without even thinking, he put his boot in as hard as he could and sent the ball rocketing into the goal at top speed, sending it flying straight through Spitfire’s whole team and into the netting just as the clock hit two seconds. It took a few seconds for everyone to fully process what just happened, and once they did, they erupted in cheers, most of all Thomas and Rainbow. “YEAH!!!”

It was then that the spectators dashed out onto the field cheering as they mobbed Thomas, picking him up over their heads in celebration. Thomas was a bit scared by this, but he still laughed happily as they started chanting his name. “Alright-alright, settle down! Get outta here; ya still got class!” the coached ordered, promptly making the crowd calm down and put Thomas down on the field.

Once they were gone, Spitfire walked over with a kind look on her face. “I gotta admit, I had my doubts about you kid. But you really came through in the clutch with that last move,” she smirked as she playfully punched him in the arm. “If you think you can pull a kick like that in an official inter-school game, then as far as I see it, all I can think to say is… Welcome to the Wondercolts.” Thomas smiled as he accepted the handshake she offered her and the others all started cheering for him.

“Alright-alright; calm down ya animals!” Coach Fire Streak ordered, quieting down the whole team. “But I gotta agree with them, Thomas. I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you with Principal Celestia. Don’t be surprised if you start getting accepted to practices in your near future.”

Thomas just smiled. “Thank you, sir.”

The coach smiled right back before he got serious. “Alright everyone, hit the showers; class dismissed. And remember; your soccer test is in the gym in three days!” With that, the whole class walked back to the locker rooms and started changing.

Once he exited the locker room, Thomas was surprised to see Spitfire waiting for him with her water bottle in hand. “Here. Probably need a cool-down after that display.”

Thomas smiled and easily accepted. “Thank you.” He opened it and was just about to put it to his lips when Spitfire stopped him.

“Ah-ah-ah, not like that,” she said. “Just hold it with the nozzle over your mouth and squeeze.” Thomas was confused but did as he was instructed which sent a torrent of water shooting from the bottle straight into his mouth. He was surprised, but he swallowed it and smiled.

“There ya go; now ye’re learnin’,” Spitfire smirked as she took her bottle back. “I think you’ve got a future in sports, kid.”

Suddenly Rainbow Dash walked over and grabbed Thomas by his vest. “Well, that future’s gonna have to wait; scuse us for a second.” With that, she started walking away dragging Thomas after her.

“Uh wait, what’s going on?” he asked, doing his best to follow her without losing balance.

“What’s going on is we’re going to meet with the others,” Rainbow said simply. “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do about last night.” With no further warning, she pulled out her phone and texted the other girls a simple three-word message; “ _T_ _homas. Library. Now._ ”


	8. Answers

It barely took three minutes upon seeing Rainbow’s text for the other girls to reach the library and find them both at a table near the door. “Thomas!” Sunset smiled happily as she leaped over to him and gave him a worried hug. “Oh man, we were so worried about you. Where’ve you been?”

“More to the point, what happened to him?” Twilight was right; Thomas’ breathing was still very fast and it seemed as though he hadn’t had much time to stop. Twilight immediately went to the worst-case scenario. “Is it that rust again?”

“Psh. Nah, just gym class.” Rainbow smirked. “Spitfire was pickin’ on him so I stepped in and we beat her in a 2-on-5 game of soccer.”

“Just you two?” asked Fluttershy.

Rainbow smirked. “Well, mostly just me but yeah; this guy was awesome. Nobody knew what hit ‘em!”

“Man, that’s impressive.” Sunset smiled.

“Thanks. But I’m not sure I want to do that again.” Thomas panted.

“Ah relax.” Rainbow smiled. “Little extra time and practice, you could probably go pro.”

Thomas smiled right back at this praise. “Thanks, Rainbow Dash. But to be honest, I don’t think I’ve been this tired since my first runaway goods train.” Suddenly his eyes shot open as he realized what he’d just said and looked up to see all the girls looking around puzzled. “I mean- uh… I’m going to go get a drink.” Without another second, he jumped to his feet and started walking quickly toward the doors of the library.

He almost made it out until the door was suddenly blocked by a wall of crystal shields. Looking back at the girls, he saw Rarity was using her powers again. “I’m afraid such a clichéd excuse won’t work on us, Darling.”

“Yeah, you’ve got some serious explaining to do.” Rainbow agreed. “‘Runaway goods train’?”

“Not to mention your disappearin’ act last night,” Applejack added. “What was that all about?”

“I really am sorry everyone,” Thomas excused earnestly. “It was getting late and I had to leave, that’s all.”

“Thomas, do you have any idea how worried about you we were? You might’ve started rusting again.” Sunset reminded. “What was so important you had to leave before explaining that?”

“Wait,” Twilight remembered. “Didn’t you say you had to stop something worse than last night from happening?”

“Oh yes, I did, didn’t I?” Thomas seemed sheepish as he remembered this. “Well, it’s all better now, really.” The girls all eyed him suspiciously as Thomas smiled at them meekly. “Really, I don’t know what that rust was all about. It’s never happened to me before.”

“You’re certain you don’t know anything?” asked Twilight. “Not even about that teleporting Gold Dust or anything?”

This surprised Thomas. “Wait, you know what the Gold Dust does?”

“Pfft. Barely.” Rainbow shrugged. “We only had enough to use for me _once_. But yeah; we know some stuff about it. Maybe you can fill in some of the gaps?”

Thomas wasn’t sure what to say until he felt Sunset’s hand on his shoulder and saw her looking at him in concern. “We had no idea where you were, Thomas. If it weren’t for Rainbow Dash here, we would’ve spent all day out looking for you.”

Thomas was surprised. “Really?”

“Really,” Sunset assured. “We’re worried about you. We may have only known each other for a day, but that was more than enough for us to see what a nice person you are. We don’t want anything to happen to you, especially not after last night. So you can understand why running like that left us more than a little on edge.” Thomas sat down on the stairs, genuinely guilty about this. “We’re here to help you in any way we can Thomas, but we can’t help if you won’t tell us what’s going on.”

Thomas shrugged. “If I told you, you would probably think I was making it all up,” he said simply.

Rarity just smiled as she called her crystal-shields over to her hands. “Darling, when you can do this, nothing sounds too outlandish.” she brought up.

Thomas just nodded, still amazed by this display. “Fair point.” He took a deep breath and stood up leaning against the hand-rail for the stairs as the girls all grouped around him. “You see…”

Before he could say anything else, Pinkie zipped forward and in one huge breath, she said… “You’re from an alternate world and you’re a talking steam train there and you’re here looking for another train who keeps your home alive with the Gold Dust stuff she creates on her Magic Railroad that connects our worlds and keeps you and all your other talking vehicle friends alive, and without her, all our worlds will be in really, really big trouble!” Once she was done, she smiled broadly with a proud **“squee”** sound.

Thomas could barely believe the fact that she had just said all that, and just stared at her wide-eyed and slack-jawed. Applejack just raised an eyebrow as she glanced at him. “How right is she?”

“Extremely,” Thomas said speechlessly as he glanced at Pinkie. “How did you know all that?”

“Just a hunch.” Pinkie said jovially.

Thomas didn’t understand that, but Sunset just placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t ask. All I can really say is… that’s Pinkie Pie.”

"So wait, when you said you were related to Billinton...?" asked Twilight.

Thomas smiled. "He was my designer. In my world, I'm an LB&CSR E2 tank engine." Twilight simply smiled in intrigue; she'd heard the E2 class had all been scrapped in the early 1960s, so to find someone from another world who said he was one was more than impressive.

Rainbow smirked, jamming her hands in her jacket pockets. “Well, believe it or not, this actually isn’t the craziest thing that’s happened here.” Thomas looked at her in shock and confusion, but Rainbow just shrugged. “Long story. Short version; you’re not the only person here from another world.”

He still didn’t understand what she meant by that until he followed her smirking gaze to Sunset. She just shrugged. “Oh uh yeah, I’m actually a unicorn from another alternate world. And that’s where the magic that gave us our powers came from.”

This surprised Thomas. “Wait, you all have powers?”

Twilight smiled, levitating her backpack over to her in a bright pink cloud of sparkles. “You didn’t actually not notice all our geodes, did you?”

Thomas was confused until he looked at the girls’ necks and realized she was right; all the girls were wearing similar geode pendants. “Well, I didn’t until you brought them up.”

“Uh, I’ve got my own question.” Spike brought up. “How can a talking train be weirded out by a talking dog?”

“The animals on Sodor don’t talk.” Thomas shrugged simply.

“Getting back on track-” Sunset said, quickly catching her words. “Uh, no pun intended- what’s the deal with this Gold Dust? Pinkie said an engine creates it?”

“Yes. Her name is Lady,” said Thomas and he explained everything about his mission and its history; Diesel 10, Mr. Conductor, the Gold Dust, Burnett Stone, Lady, the Magic Railway, everything he knew.

The others were amazed by what they heard, and once Thomas was done telling the story, they all came to a consensus. “You need a few more sets of eyes to help you?”

Thomas was surprised by this offer. “You want to help me?”

Rainbow smiled. “Do we want to help you find a magic steam engine that can save all our worlds?” She snickered a bit. “Uh yeah, we’ve saved our world from crazy Equestrian magic more times than I can count.”

“You really don’t have to do this,” Thomas said modestly.

“Maybe not, but we choose to.” Sunset smiled, bringing back memories to the first time Thomas officially met her. “We’re sticking with you no matter what.”

Twilight smiled as she stepped forward with a pad of paper in her hands. “And anyway, you don’t even know what Lady might look like in this world. Rarity and I have come up with this composite sketch that might give us a good idea to start with.” She flipped the pad around and showed the girls the sketch; a pale girl with a gold tinge to her skin, bright gold eyes and gold hair in a purple dress with her name on her sleeves, and gold and purple shoes.

Sunset’s face scrunched thoughtfully as she looked at the picture. Thomas was confused. “What is it?” he asked.

“This might sound crazy, but I think I’ve seen someone like her before,” she said.

The others were surprised. “Wait, really?” asked Rainbow. “Wow, that was a lot easier than I thought it’d be.”

“Well, don’t count yer chickens ‘fore they hatch Dash.” Applejack reminded. “Where d’ya think you've seen her, Sunset?”

“Well, before I met Thomas, I was giving a tour for some other new students,” Sunset remembered. “And I’m pretty sure one of them looked like this. She seemed pretty shy though.”

“At least we know she’s in this world.” Twilight shrugged. “Maybe she’s posing as a student like Thomas was.”

“Maybe, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone like her in any of my classes.” Rainbow shrugged.

“Me neither.” agreed Applejack.

“Perhaps she doesn’t go to classes,” suggested Rarity. “She could just be hiding out here.”

Sunset smiled. “I have an idea; we have another practice session for the band after school, so maybe after our practice session, we can start looking around the school and see if we find her.”

The girls all agreed, but Thomas seemed deep in thought. “I think I have a better idea.” The girls all turned to him in intrigue when they heard him say that. “We know she doesn’t attend classes, but what we don’t know is whether or not she hides out here _after_ school.”

Twilight placed a hand to her chin in consideration when she heard that. “He has a good point. She may hide in school during classes, but once the final bell rings, she may leave the school like the others. We might never find her.”

“Which is why Mr. Conductor gave me his Gold Dust.” Thomas explained. “He said it will pull me toward her like a magnet.”

“Do you still have some?” asked Sunset.

Thomas checked his whistle and unfortunately, only a small handful of sparkles spilled out into his hand. “Only this much.”

“Well, here’s hoping that much is enough.” Twilight shrugged. “After band practice, one of us will go with Thomas as he follows the Gold Dust. The rest of us will look around the rest of the school the old fashioned way ourselves. If anyone finds her or anything else out of place, text the rest of us your location and we’ll be right there.”

The others all agreed… knowing who might be the one to go with Thomas.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But that would have to wait. After classes, Thomas had been asked to meet the girls in the band-room to watch their practice, and was surprised to see the strange instruments. They weren’t anything like on Sodor, and Thomas was curious as to what they would sound like.

Rainbow smiled as she grabbed up her guitar and smirked. “Alright Thomas, prepare to have your mind blown. We’re the Rainbooms and it’s time to play.”

Pinkie raised her drumsticks and counted off the beat on them. “1-2!”

**(Play “Shake Your Tail”)**

_All: We’ve just got the day to get ready  
_ _And there’s only so much time to lose  
Because tonight, yeah, we’re here to party  
So let’s think of something fun to do_

_We don’t know (we don’t know) what’s gonna happen  
We just know (we just know) it’s gonna feel right  
All our friends are here  
And it’s time to ignite the lights!_

_Shake Your Tail ‘cause we’re here to have a party tonight  
Shake Your Tail, Shake Your Tail  
Shake Your Tail ‘cause we’re here to have a party tonight  
Shake Your Tail, Shake Your Tail_

Thomas was amazed; he’d never heard music like this on Sodor and he almost felt like dancing. But he was worried about dropping some of the Gold Dust and set his whistle to the side as he stood up and started dancing. But something crazy happened; small pony-like ears appeared on all the girls’ heads, their hair extended with small scrunchies into longer tail-like extensions, and Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Twilight each sprouted a pair of large feathered wings from their backs.

_Twilight: So what, you didn’t get it right the first time_

_Pinkie: Laugh it off! No one said it is a crime_

_Rarity: Do your thing, you know you’re an original_

_Applejack: Your ideas are so funny that they’re criminal_

_All: Ohhh-ahh!_

Spike was over near the girls’ bags dancing along as well, though he did flinch a bit when he heard something off to the side but figured it was nothing and just kept dancing.

_We’ve just got the day to get ready  
And there’s only so much time to lose  
Because tonight, yeah, we’re here to party  
So let’s think of something fun to do_

_We don’t know (we don’t know) what’s gonna happen  
We just know (we just know) it’s gonna feel right  
All our friends are here  
And it’s time to ignite the lights!_

_Shake Your Tail ‘cause we’re here to have a party tonight  
Shake Your Tail, Shake Your Tail  
Shake Your Tail ‘cause we’re here to have a party tonight  
Shake Your Tail, Shake Your Tail  
Shake Your Tail ‘cause we’re here to have a party tonight  
Shake Your Tail, Shake Your Tail  
Shake Your Tail ‘cause we’re here to have a party tonight  
Shake Your Tail, Shake Your Tail_

_Shake Your Tail ‘cause we’re here to have a party tonight!_

Thomas cheered and clapped when the girls finished. “Magnificent. That was wonderful!”

Rainbow smiled as she put her guitar down. “Thank you, thank you; please hold your applause.”

Sunset smirked as she jumped down from the stage and smiled. “Really thought we were that good, huh?”

“Oh absolutely. I don’t think even the brass band on Sodor could compare.” Thomas smiled… but the word brass reminded him of something, and when he glanced at his seat, fear shot to his face. “Cinders and Ashes!”

“What’s the matter?” asked Applejack.

“My whistle; it’s gone!” Thomas’s ears pricked up when he heard the clomps of boots out in the hallway. “Thieves!”

The whole group dashed out to the hall just in time to see two men dashing around a corner down the hall. “Oh no, ya don’t!” Rainbow smirked and grabbed her Geode, dashing around the corner after them. A loud sound resounded through the halls as if Rainbow had just tackled the thieves to the ground.

Quickly the others followed around the corner and found Rainbow holding the two on the ground as best they could. Applejack walked forward and grabbed on by his back, picking him up as Rainbow picked the other one up. Thomas seemed shocked when he saw them; practically identical twins with the same frosted tip haircuts and the same sort of clothing, albeit with a large color difference; weathered leather jacket over a dark gray t-shirt, weathered jeans, and shoes. One’s main color was olive green and the other was deep purple. Thomas recognized them immediately, even without needing to see the white stitched names on the lapels of their jackets. “Splatter and Dodge?”


	9. The Lost Engine

“What’re you doing here?”

“You know these guys, Thomas?” asked Rainbow, shaking Dodge by the shoulder.

“Yes, they’re from Sodor.” Thomas nodded. “This is Splatter and Dodge. They’re diesel shunters who helped Diesel 10 try and find Lady the first time. And I’d stake my weight in coal they’re trying to find her again, aren’t you?”

“Eh, well uh-” Splatter.  
“The- The boss wanted to um-” Dodge.  
“He just wanted to uh…”  
“Pay this place a little visit.”  
“Yeah, an- and he brought us along.”  
“Yeah, so he wouldn’t get lonely.”

“And so you could steal my whistle?” asked Thomas.

“Yeah, where is that thing anyway?” Rainbow quickly pawed her way through all their pockets until finally, she found Thomas’ whistle in Splatter’s jacket pocket. “Ah, there you are.”

Thomas quickly grasped it and shook it out in his hand, showing it still had Gold Dust in it. He breathed a sigh of relief as he placed the dust back in the whistle. “Now what were you doing, stealing my whistle? You know I can’t go running back to Sodor without my whistle.”

Splatter just laughed. “You won’t be goin’ back anywhere soon, puffball.”  
Dodge laughed too. “Not once the boss is through with the lost engine.”

“And pray, who exactly is this ‘boss’ of yours?” asked Rarity.

Thomas was worried and ran a hand through his hair. “I have a theory; I just hope I’m wrong,” he said simply. “Is it Diesel 10?” Splatter and Dodge just laughed, tossing their jackets up into Applejack and Rainbow’s faces before they knocked them to the ground, grabbed up their jackets, and ran away.

“Hey!” Sunset yelled after them, but too late; Splatter and Dodge were long-gone.

“Botheration!” grumbled Thomas. “If those two are here, then Lady may be in more trouble than we thought.”

“Why’s that?” asked Fluttershy.

“Because Diesel 10 might be here too,” explained Thomas. “We need to find Lady.” He quickly emptied his whistle into his hand and grew sad by what he saw. “That’s odd. I thought there was more Gold Dust than this in here.” He was right; there was barely a pinch or two of Gold Dust in Thomas’ whistle whereas last time, he had enough to fill his palm.

Twilight realized what that might’ve meant and checked her magic tracker. “I knew it; those guys stole most of the Gold Dust.”

“What?!” Rainbow asked and glared after the diesels. “Grr! Cmon, we’ve gotta go after them!”

“There’s no time; they’re probably already trying to use the Gold Dust,” Thomas argued. “Our best chance is to try and find Lady before them so I can get her back to the Magic Railway.”

“Do you think that’s enough Gold Dust to find her?” asked Sunset.

“I hope so.” Thomas shrugged. Then he had an idea. “Wait. Twilight, what about your tracking device? If it can track the Gold Dust, then maybe it can track its source.”

Twilight smiled when he said this. “You think we can track down Lady without the Gold Dust. It’s worth a shot.” Quickly, she tuned the amulet to track Gold Dust signatures other than Thomas’s whistle and what little Splatter and Dodge ran away with, and almost immediately, the tracker flashed gold, far stronger than any other signature. “I’ve got something. It’s this way; cmon!” The group quickly started running after Twilight as she led the way.

The tracker led them all the way through the school until they arrived in the main hall, where they found a girl who looked almost exactly like Twilight and Rarity’s sketch talking to Principal Celestia near the door, apart from one thing; her sleeves didn’t have her name stitched into them.

No one noticed though as they looked at her happily. “That’s her.” Sunset realized, pointing at her. “That’s the girl from the tour the other day.”

Thomas smiled and jogged over with a smile. “Lady! It’s so good to see you again.”

Lady just looked over at her with a confused look in her eye, hair covering the left side of her face. “Who are you?”

This froze Thomas right in his tracks, surprised. “What?” The girls were surprised too as they walked over. “L- Lady, it’s me; Thomas. Remember?”

She just shrugged. “I’m sorry, the name doesn’t sound familiar.” She looked back at Celestia and smiled as she took a paper from her. “Anyway, thank you, Principal Celestia.”

“Think nothing of it, Polly.” This simply surprised the team even more. “Just be sure you’re on time.”

“Always, ma’am.” With that, “Polly” gave a small salute and walked out the door.

Once she was gone, Celestia looked at Thomas and the girls with a confused look in her eye. “Now, what exactly was that all about?”

Thomas was worried; he knew she might not believe him as easily as the girls did… but Pinkie stepped forward anyway. “Long story short; Thomas is a talking train from another world and so is that girl, whose real name is Lady.” Thomas was terrified; he quickly mimed to the others to stop her, but they all mimed for him to relax. “She runs a magic railway between worlds that keeps them stable and without her on it, our worlds will be in serious trouble.”

Celestia seemed surprised and looked at the others; specifically at Thomas. “Is that true? It’s really hard to tell with Pinkie Pie sometimes.”

Thomas was surprised but shrugged and nodded anyway. “Yes. It’s true.”

Celestia just chuckled. “Well, why didn’t you say so sooner? We would’ve helped you.”

This only confused Thomas more as he looked around at the smiling girls. “Relax. Everyone at this school knows about our powers.” Rainbow smirked. “And they all believe in magic.”

“Well, I didn’t know that when I arrived here.” Thomas shrugged, looking at Celestia. “So why did you call her Polly?”

“Because that’s what she said her name was; Polly Stone.” That gave Thomas an idea.

“Flatten my funnel; of course!” he smiled as he slapped his forehead.

“What is it?” asked Twilight.

“If there’s anyone who might know what’s wrong with Lady, it’s the man who brought her back to service,” Thomas explained.

“ _Burnett_ Stone.” Sunset understood. “Genius. But where do we find him?”

“Shining Time,” Thomas explained. “We just have to take the Magic Railway to Shining Time Station. Cmon.” Once he opened the doors out of the school, he heard a familiar roar coming from the statue and from it dropped two familiar-seeming people.

One was a square-jawed, round-nosed young man with pale skin with a twinge of red to it, wavy crimson hair and brown eyes, wearing a red t-shirt with a black collar under a red jacket with gold stripes, and black trousers and boots. The other was a boy younger than the first with a round face with a nose just as round, pale skin tinted a light-green, bright curly green hair, and teal eyes, wearing a green t-shirt with a red collar under a dark green jacket, green trousers, and bright green trainers.

But it was the brass whistles hanging from their necks and gold number badges on their jackets that gave away who they were; the one in red wore a 5, and the one in green; a 6. “Percy? James?”


	10. The Steam Team

_Moments Earlier…_

Sir Topham Hatt had called Percy and James to Tidmouth Sheds, as well as Edward, Henry, Gordon, Toby, and Emily. The problem was no one knew why.

“This is disgraceful,” Gordon grumbled as he backed into his berth. “What could possibly be so important that I must leave my express at Knapford?”

“Maybe it has something to do with where Thomas is,” Emily suggested.

James scoffed. “Please. How could a little tank engine like him be more important than a splendid red engine like me?”

“Because of what that tank engine is doing.” Everyone knew that voice; Sir Topham Hatt was standing in front of the sheds with a stern look on his face.

“And pray tell Sir, what exactly _is_ Little Thomas doing?” asked Gordon.

“Saving the Lost Engine again.” That voice surprised everyone; Mr. Conductor had appeared behind Sir Topham Hatt, looking only slightly better than last time Percy saw him; his suit was its usual shade of blue and he didn’t need the cane anymore, but other than that, he still looked quite the worse for wear.

Emily was surprised. “The Lost Engine? I thought that was just a legend.” The others realized that was right; Emily hadn’t arrived on Sodor until after Lady came back the last time.

“Believe me Emily; she’s as real as your rails,” Toby assured. “But what’s wrong with her?”

“She’s gone missing.” Sir Topham Hatt explained. “And based on our investigation, we believe Diesel 10 may be behind this.”

Percy was surprised. “But that can’t be right. He’s been so much nicer since we rebuilt the Dieselworks.”

“Has he?” Mr. Conductor argued, causing Percy to doubt what he said himself.

“He’s right.” Edward agreed. “If he tried so hard to destroy Lady last time, who’s to say he’d want to stop?”

“Which is why, after careful thought, I’ve decided to send the lot of you through the Magic Buffers after Thomas to help him.” Sir Topham Hatt explained. “I’ve spoken to several other engines around the island to do all your jobs while you’re gone, but we need you to go through the Buffers and find them both.”

Percy was scared, but she steamed forward. “You know I’m in, Sir.”

Toby smiled as his bell lightly dinged. “As am I, Sir.”

The others all quickly agreed as well, making Sir Topham smile. “Good engines. I knew we could count on you.”

Mr. Conductor smiled and poured some Gold Dust into his hand before he tossed it onto Percy, making his paint glitter. “Percy, since you’re the only engine who’s been close to the buffers aside from Thomas, you’ll be leading the way. Good luck.”

Percy whistled as he steamed out of the sheds with all the others quickly following him; first James, then Henry, Gordon, Edward, Toby, and Emily. Soon enough, they’d fueled up and arrived at the Buffers, lined up near an old shed not far from them. “I still think this is a bit preposterous. How are we supposed to know where Thomas is once we’re inside?” asked Gordon.

“Mr. Conductor told Thomas that the Gold Dust will pull us to Lady like a magnet and set the points for us,” Percy remembered.

“And wherever Lady is, Thomas won’t be far behind.” Toby reminded.

“Whenever you’re ready Percy,” Edward assured. “We’re all right behind you.”

Percy took a deep breath and plucked up courage; he knew his friend was in danger and focused on that. All the engines buffered together and stood strong, so once Percy whistled and let off steam, all the others did as well as they steamed toward the buffers, slowly building up steam. With all seven of them running at once, they got up to incredibly high speeds until they shot through the buffers to the Magic Railway, where they were a bit frightened. “Bubbling boilers, is this what’s become of the Magic Railway?” shuddered Edward.

“I must say it’s fairly dismal,” Gordon grumbled snootily.

“No choice left.” Toby reminded. “We have to find Thomas. Which way, Percy?”

It wasn’t actually Percy who answered, but the points in front of him, which switched down the track to the portal to the school. “I guess we go this way.” It was then that a loud familiar horn bellowed through the railway from up ahead. Percy looked and his wheels locked when he saw the source of the horn. “Bust my Buffers; it’s Diesel 10!” And it was; the large diesel was barreling down the tracks toward the engines, terrifying them all.

“Well, what’re we waiting for?” James asked with a bump. “Move!” Quickly all the engines roared over the points, leaving Diesel 10 trapped on the other track.

“Nice try puffballs!” he yelled. “I’ll get you all soon!”

Emily scowled as she pumped Toby, who bumped Edward, who bumped Gordon. “Gordon, we’re all coupled to you now!” she yelled to him, and she was right; that bump had knocked all three of the last engines’ front couplings onto the rear hooks of the one in front, connecting them right to Gordon’s tender. “Give us all the speed you can manage!”

Gordon smirked as he heard this and whistled loud and long. “Express coming through!” he bellowed and pushed the others on as fast as he could, scaring Percy and James more than a bit.

Suddenly Henry looked ahead and saw the mirror and was nearly terrified. “Fizzling Fireboxes; stop!” He slammed on the brakes to slow the cavalcade down, but James and Percy weren’t coupled to him so they were still sent rumbling straight to the portal. They both bolted their eyes closed just before impact, but it happened in a very unexpected way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What’re you doing here?!” Percy was still getting used to this strange pain in his front end when he heard this familiar voice. Suddenly he found himself being picked up by something as he eased his eyes open to the familiar face of his old friend.

“Thomas?” he asked in confusion.

“The one and only.” Thomas smiled, being sure to flash his gold 1 badge to his friend.

Percy just smiled and hugged him, which surprised him for a variety of reasons as he backed away and looked at them both. “What the-? We’re people!”

Thomas just chuckled. “I know; it took me a while to get used to it too.”

James just screamed, running his hands over his new body. “I don’t believe this. What on earth happened to my smart red coat?”

Thomas and Percy both just rolled their eyes as they looked at their red friend. “Nice to see you too James.”

James was surprised as he glanced at the two. “Thomas?”

Thomas quickly shook himself to the matter at hand. “Wait, what’re you two doing here anyway?”

Before Percy could explain, Thomas and the others quickly found that it wasn’t just the two of them as James was suddenly knocked to the ground by five other people, each one just as familiar to Thomas as the others. Though he was most concerned about the one on the bottom of the pile.

He was a tall, fairly muscular young man with a square-jawed face, a sharp nose, light greyish-green skin, well-groomed but still fairly disheveled green hair, and bright hazel eyes, wearing a dark-green t-shirt with a red collar under a green vest with mustard-yellow details and a gold 3 badge in his lapel, a familiar brass whistle charm, dark green shorts, and trainers, and he seemed very pained and confused.

Thomas quickly jumped to his side, and rolled him over onto his back in concern, knowing exactly who he was from the get-go. “Henry? Henry, are you okay?”

Fluttershy seemed intrigued as she dropped to Henry’s other side in concern. Henry’s eyes slowly opened and he glanced around. His vision was fuzzy and he couldn’t fully make out what he was seeing, but he could tell he was looking at Thomas… and an unusual girl on his left. Even Thomas’ human form didn’t surprise him for now. “T- Thomas?” he groaned.

“Yes. Yes, Henry, it’s me.” Thomas assured. “Thank heavens you’re okay.”

Henry smiled as he looked at the clearing image of Fluttershy in his vision. “Do you see the angel too?”

Thomas was surprised. "'Angel'?” He looked up and quickly realized what he meant by that when he saw Fluttershy blushing.

James just snickered. “Are you feeling okay, Ol’ Square Wheels?”

That certainly opened Henry’s eyes as he sat up. “Oh, belt up James.”

Thomas and James laughed. “Yeah, he’s fine.” Thomas agreed.

Henry glanced over at Fluttershy to see her blushing and find that she was not, in fact, an angel… which greatly embarrassed him. “Oh, bubbling boilers. That was silly.”

“Adorable~♫” Rarity smiled in a sing-song voice. It was that comment that prompted the others to slowly rise, groaning in pain.

Thomas quickly noticed, and had an idea as he pulled Percy and James to their feet with Fluttershy carefully picking up Henry. “Uh, could you come over here and help, please?”

“We’re on it.” Rainbow nodded as the girls jogged over, each one picking up a certain engine. Thomas could easily tell who was who by their color-schemes, numbers, faces, and whistle charms.

Gordon was a young man about as tall as (if not an inch or so taller than) Henry, making him the tallest of the group, with a strong square jaw, a sharp square nose, light blueish-grey skin, well-groomed blue hair, and darker blue eyes, wearing a blue t-shirt with a red collar under a bright blue jacket with red trim, light blue trousers and a red ascot around his jacket’s collar, with a bright gold 4 badge pinned on his lapel, and blue trainers. Rainbow carefully winched him to his feet with every ounce of strength she could manage, since he was fairly heavy.

Edward was about as tall as James (making them both an inch or so taller than Thomas, but no taller than Gordon or Henry), with a round face, a nose a fair bit smaller and pointier than Gordon’s, light blue-gray skin, short “classic crew cut” blue hair, and bright blue eyes, wearing a light blue t-shirt with a red collar under a darker blue vest, the lapel of which his gold 2 badge was pinned into, dark blue trousers, and blue trainers. Twilight pulled him up, finding him to be fairly light despite his height.

Toby was the same height as Thomas with a square face, a prominent up-turned nose, tan skin, shaggy brown hair, and brown eyes, wearing a brown t-shirt under a brown cargo jacket with a gold 7 badge pinned into the right chest pocket, a small brass bell on a black cord hanging around his neck, grey trousers, and black shoes. Applejack pulled him to his feet without much trouble with him being fairly light.

Emily was around the same height as the other girls with a face quite similar in shape to theirs as well, a small sharp nose, light emerald-gray skin, long emerald hair, and bluish-green eyes, wearing a gold-collared black t-shirt under a dark green jacket with similar trim, a green skirt with gold pleating and red and gold stitching, green knee-high socks and black high-heeled boots. Sunset pulled her up with her arm over her shoulder, smiling at having another girl in the group.

“Ugh.” Gordon groaned as he looked himself and the others over, greatly surprised. “Pounding pistons! What’s happened to us?”

“Stay calm Gordon, it takes some getting used to,” Thomas explained quickly, which greatly surprised everyone, especially Henry who now understood his situation better.

Suddenly James remembered something as he looked at the portal. “Bust my Buffers; how do you close this thing?”

Henry realized what he meant quickly. “Oh yes that’s right; Diesel 10 was after us. We have to seal the railway before he comes through.”

“We don’t think there _is_ any way to seal the portal in this thing.” Twilight shrugged. “We’re going to have to do this the hard way.”

Thomas nodded. “Right. Rarity, you take James. Pinkie, you take Percy. Let’s get out of here.”

“We can barely even move, Thomas; we’ll never make it far,” argued Gordon.

Rainbow smirked as she looked up to the doors of the school. “We won’t have to. Follow me.” As quickly as she could, she and the others dashed up the stairs into the school which greatly surprised both Principal Celestia and a darker-skinned woman with dark hair, eyes, and clothes with her.

“Sorry to impose like this Principal Celestia, but we need to hide in your office for a moment.” Thomas quickly explained.

Celestia wasn’t sure what to make of it, but allowed them into the office. “Of course.” Quickly, the others were all dragged into place and set down in various places around the office, James, Emily, and Edward standing up leaning on the half-wall but nearly all the others sitting down.

“Alright, just act calm, and don’t let Diesel 10 see your faces.” Rainbow explained. Gordon quickly got the message and picked up a nearby newspaper, holding it up to hide his face. The others all acted as casually as possible while looking away from the doors and windows out to the main hall just as a tall man with brown hair, light grey skin, and black eyes, wearing a brown trenchcoat over a black shirt and trousers with a large hydraulic claw mounted to his back walked through the door.

Percy gave a quiet scared whimper when he saw him through the glass door. “Shh!” Gordon quickly hissed. Still, he held the newspaper a bit higher over his face just to be safe. Finally, Diesel 10 appeared to have lost track of them and walked out the door, the claw on his back hissing and writhing in what seemed like anger as he left the building.

Twilight looked out the window and watched as he walked off the campus grounds. “He’s gone.” Finally, everyone could relax and they all let out a sigh of relief.

“That was too close,” said Edward.

“Who was that?” asked Celestia.

“Bit of a long story,” Thomas said simply before turning to his friends. “What’re you all doing here?”

“Sir Topham Hatt and Mr. Conductor sent us to find you and Lady,” Toby explained. “They were worried about you.”

Thomas was happy. “Oh, Mr. Conductor. Is he alright?”

“Doing much better since last time we saw him.” Percy smiled.

“Speaking of Lady, of course, where exactly is she?” asked James. “She’s around here, isn’t she?”

“Well, yes but-”

“Well, why have you been wasting time in such a way, Little Thomas?” Gordon interrupted as he stood up, still balancing on the arm of his chair. “Let’s just find her and get back to Sodor, quickly.”

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple, Darling,” said Rarity, grabbing his arm.

“Why’s that?” asked Henry.

Sunset sighed as she looked at Thomas. “You wanna tell ‘em or should I?”

Thomas waved his hand at her, indicating that he would explain and stepped forward. “Lady _is_ here, but she doesn’t remember me. She may not remember anything else.”

Edward ran a hand over his head unconsciously. “Well, that’s… rather disheartening.”

Emily scoffed a bit. “Think that’s puttin’ it mildly.”

Percy quickly remembered something and looked at Thomas. “Did you ask her about Mr. Stone?”

Twilight realized that was a fair point. “No. We didn’t,” she said thoughtfully. “We’ll have to keep that in mind for next time we see her.”

“Easier said than done, Twilight.” Rainbow reminded. “She’s not in _any_ of our classes.”

“I think I can help you there.” Celestia smiled, handing a piece of paper to Sunset. “Once you told me what was really going on here, I decided to have a copy of her schedule printed up to help you.”

Sunset smiled as she graciously accepted the paper. “Thank you, Principal Celestia.”

Gordon gladly stood, legs still shaking unsteadily, and snagged it from her hands. “Well then, if you’ll excuse me…” With that, he moved for the door…

Only to be blocked off by Rainbow Dash. “Whoa-whoa-whoa. Where do you think you’re goin’?”

“Well, back to Knapford Station for my express, long-term.” Gordon shrugged. “Short-term; I’m going out there to find…” Once he read the name on the schedule in his hand, he was surprised. “‘Polly Stone’?”

“As I said, she’s lost her memory. She doesn’t know what her real name is.” Thomas explained.

“Well, who knows? Perhaps the best way to get her memory back is for her to run on the Magic Railway and bring our worlds back to life.” Gordon suggested strongly.

“And you think forcing her through the portal is the best way to go about doing that?” asked Rarity. “You can’t do that.”

“I can and I will,” Gordon argued, trying to push past Rainbow. “At least I’m doing something about this situation, unlike Little Thomas here.”

Rainbow just held him back as best she could, though it was an uphill battle. “Thomas, any time you wanna talk some sense into this guy would be very appreciated.”

“They’re right Gordon. We didn’t have time to tell her everything, but even if we did, without her memory, how would she believe us?” Thomas argued.

Suddenly Sunset’s ears perked up at the mention of the big guy’s name. “Ah, so this is the famous Gordon.”

That stopped Gordon in his tracks and he turned to her with a strong smile. “Ah. I see you’ve heard of me.”

Sunset smirked. “We heard about your little fiasco at the dump, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Gordon spluttered when he heard this, knowing only one person could’ve told that story. “Duh- Thomas!”

Thomas just smiled. “Sorry, it was a good story at the time I told it.”

“Well, if nothin’ else, least now we know what ya meant when ya said he was ‘impossible’.” shrugged Applejack, making the others laugh.

“Oh, that’s not even the half of it.” James smiled. “Why once, when a famous engine came to Sodor, Gordon claimed he could match their record of 100 miles an hour, and ended up losing his dome for his trouble.” Everyone laughed harder at this, which only made Gordon crosser still.

“Right then, if the rest of you have nothing better to do than dawdle around and laugh like trucks, I’ll be on my way.” he spluttered and opened the door.

“Gordon, wait!” Thomas begged, but there was no need; Gordon was so unsteady on his new legs that he took one step outside the office and lost his balance, falling to the ground in pain.

At this point, Edward grew concerned as well. “Alright everyone, quiet down,” he ordered, looking at the other engines. “Or need I remind you lot that Gordon has earned The Queen’s Fire Service Medal?” That quickly made everyone quiet down out of respect as Thomas moved to Gordon’s side and picked him up off the ground.

“Rarity is right Gordon,” he assured. “We can’t just drag Lady to the portal and expect her to cooperate. She’ll think we’re kidnapping her or worse, she’ll just think we’re crazy.”

“And what do you suggest we do instead, Thomas?” asked Gordon. “Wait here for her to regain her memories while Diesel 10 picks us all off one by one?” Thomas could tell the wording of that scared Percy, but he couldn’t acknowledge it now. “What are we supposed to tell Sir Topham Hatt and Mr. Conductor?”

“If Mr. Conductor comes here, we’ll tell him the truth,” Sunset explained. “And as for Sir Topham Hatt… well, you’ll come up with something.”

Thomas smiled as an idea came to him. “Well… what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

This confused everyone. “What? What do you mean?” asked Gordon.

Thomas smiled even more broadly as he let Gordon go, leaning against a wall. “Well, you lot are all here. So that means he’s arranged for other engines to take your trains, hasn’t he?”

Twilight looked out of the office with a strange look on her face. “Thomas, where are you going with this?”

“Simple.” Thomas shrugged. “You lot are already here, so why not stay a while?”

“WHAT?!?!” all the engines asked in confusion.

“Thomas, we can’t stay here!” Henry yelled. “Being away from Sodor for so long would be just- just-”

“Disgraceful!” said Gordon.

“Disgusting!” put in James.

“Despicable!” finished Henry.

Twilight pointed at the three with her thumb as she looked at Edward with a questioning look in her face. “Ah, that’s just a thing they do.” Edward quickly explained. “They mean well; bless them, but they can get very puffed up in the smokebox sometimes.” He stepped forward to voice his own opinion. “I don’t really see a problem. Thomas is right; Sir Topham Hatt said he’d arranged for other engines to take our trains. We may as well stay and help him.”

“Why would he need us if he’s already got these girls to help him?” asked James.

Thomas smiled at his red friend. “Because you’re my friends,” he explained happily. “Finding Lady and bringing her back concerns us all. Even if it’s just for moral support, I want everyone here with me when we save Sodor.”

The engines all looked at each other considering the option given to them. Despite how vague it was, Thomas had a point; they _were_ his friends, and if that meant anything to them, it meant it was expected that they'd be on board with his decisions and his request for them to stay with him in Canterlot. Still, all that they came to do was find Thomas, and bring him and Lady back to the Island of Sodor. They'd had hoped he would've found Lady by this point and was ready to bring her back with them, but they had encountered a complication they didn't expect. They couldn't seem to convince Thomas to leave with them so now they were left with a whole new dilemma; do they stay, or do they go? Gordon already seemed keen on going home but the others thought about it for a few seconds. Though they failed to see how they were needed here, Thomas did seem to want all of his friends beside him.

Edward knew full-well that he might’ve been making a mistake as he stood forward and smiled. “I want to go home just as much as you Gordon, but if Thomas is so insistent that he sees this through to the end, then I’m staying too.”

Thomas was surprised but still smiled. Gordon however was just surprised. “Wha- Edward! What about Sodor? You of all engines should know we have work to do back home.” Edward stood firm; he doubted Sir Topham Hatt would be cross when he explained that they stayed behind to help Thomas in his mission.

Henry was next to stand, walking uneasily out to join them. “I’m staying too.”

Gordon was still shocked. “Henry? You as well?”

Emily was the next to come out, smiling as she threw her arms around the necks of the two large engines. “The fools need company.”

“Mind if I tag along?” asked Toby.

Thomas just smiled. “The more the merrier.” Then he looked at James and Percy, James looking cross and Percy just looking uneasy.

“Well…” Percy began.

“Oh alright fine,” grumbled James as he stood up. “I’ll stay, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it here.”

Thomas smiled, placing a hand on James’ shoulder happily. “You didn't like it at the Steelworks either, but that didn't stop you.” James smiled; he remembered that and couldn’t help but become much happier when he did. Then he looked to Percy with a sincere face.

Percy thought it over before he smiled and let his arms down. “Alright. Only because you’re right; we _are_ friends. And if you’re not going home yet, then none of us are going home.”

Thomas smiled as he hugged Percy. “Thank you, Percy.”

Percy just smiled. “What are best friends for?” Thomas laughed, and everyone looked at Gordon with hopeful expressions on their faces.

“Gordon, please.” Gordon was still staring out at the statue’s plinth. He didn’t like the idea of being stuck in this world for too long, but that was when he remembered something he and Thomas promised to each other long ago, so he smiled and clapped hands with the little engine.

“Who am I to go against our alliance?” Thomas smiled right back; he remembered all too well the time he fell down a mine and Gordon came to his rescue, even though Thomas teased him about the time Gordon himself had slid into a swampy ditch near Knapford Sheds not long before.

After that, the two recognized their disgraceful mishaps and made a promise to look out for each other and formed their own little alliance. For a while, it had seemed as though neither of them had been true to their word in recent years, but the circumstances they faced now seemed to spark a new light in their age-old alliance. He slapped his hand onto Gordon’s shoulder and repeated what the big engine had said when they started their pact.

“‘United we Stand’…”  
“‘Together We Fall’.” Gordon smiled.  
“‘You help me’…”  
“‘And I help you’.”

The two laughed and hugged as their alliance was reaffirmed. The other engines all beamed as well, proud of Gordon for putting his friendship with Thomas first but still surprised by his willingness to forgo his wish to go home so easily.

Sunset and the girls just looked on in confusion. “What’s all this about an alliance?” asked Sunset.

Thomas and Gordon just smiled as they looked at them. “We’re in disgrace.” they both said at once.

Though this only confused the girls more. “O… kay…?” Rainbow said unsure as she glanced over at Applejack, who just shrugged.

Thomas just chuckled. “It’s a long story.”

“Well, we have time. We might as well tell them.” Gordon laughed.

“How about some introductions first?” asked Spike. “And before any of you ask, yes; I can talk.” The engines all stared at Spike wide-eyed and slack-jawed in shock.

Thomas just walked over to Sunset, who was smirking at the others. “Looks like we have a few stories for them too.” Sunset smiled.


	11. Sodor Engines

Soon enough, the engines had made their introductions to the girls and shared some stories of their past; how Henry received the overhaul he desperately needed after his accident with the Flying Kipper, how Gordon fell in the ditch and made his alliance with Thomas after saving him from the collapsed mine, how James mistook Percy for scary Jack Frost in the winter, how Edward saved Trevor from scrap, how Toby found Bertram at the mines, and how Emily thought the family of seals at Black Loch were a monster.

Everyone laughed a bit at some of these stories, and in turn, the girls explained all that had happened to them before the engines had arrived; the disastrous Fall Formal, the Sirens’ attack, the Friendship Games, the trip to Camp Everfree, everything. The engines were surprised to hear about Sunset’s origins, but they were still quite accepting, which was a huge relief to her.

Finally, after a fair bit of revelry, Gordon got serious and stood up. “So Thomas, I must ask; what exactly _is_ your plan to get Lady back to the Magic Railroad?”

Thomas smiled as he stood up. “So far, all we’ve come up with is to speak with Mr. Stone in Shining Time.” he shrugged. “If anyone in any world knows what’s wrong with her, it has to be him.”

“But that would mean taking the track to Muffle Mountain,” said Percy. “If Diesel 10 is here, he might be able to follow you.”

Edward smiled. “If he tries, we can just stake out the portal with bags of sugar.”

This seemed to confused Pinkie. “Why would sugar work? Everyone likes sugar.”

“Not diesels,” Gordon smirked. “If you pour it in their fuel tanks, it seizes up their systems.”

“But that wouldn’t work on him here.” reminded Twilight.

“Well yes, of course; you know that and I know that. But does he?” Gordon raised an eyebrow.

Rainbow gave a happy laugh at this idea. “I like this guy. So we spook him with some sugar and he’ll stay away from the portal long enough.”

“I hope so,” Thomas noted.

Suddenly they all heard something. “Atisha- Atisha- ” The engines all recognized that sound; Henry was about to sneeze. “Atisha-AHHH- **CHOO**!” It was so loud, it echoed around the school’s courtyard.

“Phooey; say it, don’t spray it, Henry.” James waved.

Henry just sniffed. “Sorry.” Fluttershy smiled caringly and handed him a small tissue that Henry accepted happily. “Oh, thank you.” He carefully blew his nose and crumpled the tissue up as he walked to a trash can and threw it in.

That reminded Thomas of something. “Bust my Buffers, that’s right!” Everyone looked at him with strange looks on their faces. “The last time I found Lady, she needed special Sodor coal to steam.”

“What good will coal do for Lady if she doesn’t have a firebox to burn it?” reminded James.

“She doesn’t need the coal, James.” retorted Thomas. “She needs Gold Dust. And lots of it. And part of Mr. Conductor’s clue to the source of the Gold Dust is ‘Stoke up the Magic in the Mountain and the Lady will Smile’.”

Edward understood perfectly. “And that’s what engine crews do with coal; they stoke it up in our fireboxes to boil our water.”

“So if we get our hands on some of this coal and get it to Burnett, he might be able to help us get enough Gold Dust to help Lady.” Sunset realized. “I like it.”

Rarity yawned and glanced at her watch to see that it was very nearly seven o’clock at night. “Well, if no one else minds, I think we should deal with this tomorrow. Ladies need their beauty sleep.”

James smiled. “Now you’re speaking my language. I always need my beauty rest.” The engines just scoffed as the other girls looked at him with strange looks on their faces. “What? Look at me; it works.”

“Oh, pull the other one James, it’s got bells on.” Emily laughed.

“I suggest you save that for once we find somewhere to sleep,” Gordon ordered. “Now, where exactly _should_ we spend the night?”

“Well, I slept in the school gym’s supply room last night.” Thomas reminded.

“ _That’s_ where you were?” asked Sunset incredulously.

“Well, where else was I supposed to go?” asked Thomas. “I had to find Lady. But I was too tired to find anywhere to get a real good night’s rest, so I had to make do with what was around the school.”

“Well, there’s no way you’re sleeping there again.” Pinkie said jovially and hugged him. “We’re all friends now! _Slumber party at Sunset’s house!_ ”

The other girls were all happy at the idea, though Emily was a bit worried. “Uh, are you sure that’s a good idea?” she asked. “I mean, I’ve heard stories from my driver’s daughter that girls aren’t supposed to have boys over for slumber parties.”

Rainbow just scoffed. “And uh, how old is she?”

Emily thought back. “Twelve. Why?”

Sunset smirked. “Well, there ya go. That rule is really only for girls who haven’t reached their later teenage years yet. It’s to prove to their parents that they’re mature enough to have boys over when they’re older.”

“Well, what about _your_ parents then?” asked Gordon. “Will they understand all of us?”

Sunset rubbed her arm a bit, as if she were embarrassed about something. “I haven’t exactly been on the best terms with my parents since I left Equestria. I’ve been living on my own since I started at Canterlot High.”

Thomas was confused and worried, but decided to leave it be for now. “Well, I suppose that’s that then.” Gordon nodded. “Come along, everyone. Sunset, lead the way.”

“Whoa there, partner.” Applejack stopped him with one hand on his chest, surprising him with her strength. “You fellas ain’t settin’ foot anywhere near any of our places at night without some jammies.”

“I must agree, Applejack.” Rarity nodded. “Until these gentlemen have some proper nightwear, the slumber party is on hold.”

“Well, how long would it take for us to get some?” asked Toby.

“Oh boy, here we go…” Rainbow groaned. The engines seemed confused, but Rarity just beamed.

“Well, since you asked, I would be more than happy to take you all shopping for some.” Rarity smiled.

Sunset stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “Why don’t you just get their sizes now and go shopping without us? We’ve got a long night of planning ahead of us.”

“Ooh…” Rarity groaned. “Alright. We’ll trawl the mall together another time.” Quickly, she pulled out her measuring tape and dashed around the engines, quickly getting all their measurements and clothing sizes in under a few minutes. “I’ll meet you at Sunset’s house once I’m done at the mall. Ta-ta!” And she dashed away to her car.

“Don’t take too long!” Rainbow called after her. “We still wanna be able to sleep tonight after all!” Once she was gone, the girls all led the engines through the city toward Sunset’s house. The engines were all amazed; the most they had seen of cities like this was when they were parked at stations or sitting in shunting yards. Now they were walking the streets and taking in all the sights their passengers and crews did.

Soon enough, they’d made their way to Sunset’s house and were all quite happy to see it was fairly roomy and quite well-furnished. “Wow. This is a nice place Sunset.” Thomas smiled.

“It’s hardly Tidmouth Sheds, but I suppose it’ll do,” said Gordon snootily.

Sunset was cross, but Edward just placed a hand on her shoulder. “Nevermind him Sunset; I think your home is lovely.”

This made Sunset feel much better and she smiled. “Well, it isn’t much. But I call it home.”

Thomas smiled. “I know what you mean. Tidmouth may be quaint, but sometimes I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have a berth there to rest my pistons at night.” Then he glanced over at Gordon and James, both acting very haughty and earning laughs and rolled eyes from the others. “…As long as those two can keep themselves under control.”

Sunset chuckled. “Must get annoying.”

“Oh, it does,” Edward assured. “In fact, we branch line engines have our own sheds away from Tidmouth when we need some space. Still, I must agree with Thomas; sometimes it’s nice to rest with our friends and talk about what’s happened throughout the day.”

Sunset smiled. She’d wanted to ask this question ever since she and the others heard the truth about Thomas in the library, but she didn’t know when to bring it up… until Rarity came in carrying bags of clothes. “Oh engines, your nightwear is here,” she called.

Everyone quickly zipped over and took their assigned sets out of Rarity’s hands, smiling that she’d kept their color-schemes right. The boys all had simple button-up shirts and drawstring trousers (blue for Thomas, Edward and Gordon, bright green for Henry and Percy, red for James, and brown for Toby), while Emily had a deep emerald nightgown.

Once everyone had changed for the night, the girls were impressed by how the engines looked in their nightwear. After several hours of evening revelry (pizza, games, and stories), Sunset plucked up courage as she stepped up to them. “Can I ask you guys something?” The engines all stopped their gossiping and glanced over at her. “What’s Sodor like?”

The engines were surprised at the question, even moreso when they saw the same question in the expressions of the rest of the girls. Finally, Thomas smiled as he looked at Sunset. “It’s like nowhere else you’ve ever seen.”

“We’d tell you, but it really works best with visuals.” Edward shrugged.

Twilight smiled. “I think Sunset can help with that.” The girls were confused. “Since Sunset’s geode can let her view the memories of individual people by physical contact, I’m thinking that if we all link hands when she looks at Thomas’ memories, we can all see what Sunset sees.”

Sunset was surprised but smiled. “It’s certainly worth a try.” Everyone linked hands in a circle as Sunset activated her geode and clapped hands with Thomas. Her eyes went bright white as she gazed into the minds of all the engines, with the images flowing through the minds of everyone else.

**(Play “The Island Song” – Thomas & Friends)**

The girls were amazed by what they saw in Sunset’s vision: the Island of Sodor was more beautiful than anything they had ever seen; the bright beaches, the gleaming glens, the mighty mountains, and the magnificent castles were grand. Then they heard a song; Thomas and the others must’ve remembered it from some children who were singing it at a station, and decided to sing it as well.

_Engines: Picture a land where the sky is so blue  
A storybook land of wonder  
A magical island just waiting for you  
Island of Sodor will make your dreams come true_

Suddenly the girls all saw the engines transforming into their engine forms as they ran the rails with the girls floating along next to them like ghosts.

_Imagine a place where the sun always smiles  
The valleys are green as can be  
And friends that you love are all waiting for you  
Island of Sodor will make your dreams come true_

_Children, follow the dream  
To a land of make-believe  
The Island… of Sodor  
A magical land where dreams come true_

_Emily:_ “Follow the road that leads to your dream.”

 _Percy:_ “Over the hills and mountains.”

 _Thomas:_ “Look for the skies with stars in their eyes.”

_Engines: Island of Sodor will make your dreams come true_

_Children, follow the dream  
To a land of make-believe  
The Island… of Sodor  
A magical land where dreams… come… true…!_

The girls were in awe as they saw their new friends roaring around the island past industries and stations with dozens of other engines racing along with them. Sunset couldn’t help but let an amazed tear fall down her face in real life.

_The Island… of Sodor_

_Magical land where dreams… come true…_

**(Cut it)**

The vision soon faded as Sunset let go and wiped the tear from her face as the others all smiled happily. “That was beautiful Thomas,” said Sunset as she hugged her new friend.

Thomas smiled as he hugged her back. “It’s not much. But we call it home.” The other engines smiled at their number 1 as he referenced what Sunset had said not a few minutes earlier. Then he looked at the other girls and smiled. “If you want, you can all come to see it first-hand tomorrow.”

Twilight was surprised… and a bit worried. “What do you mean by that?”

Edward knew what he meant and smiled. “Thomas is right. With us gone for this long, the work-load may have backed up on Sodor, even with our friends pulling our trains. And besides that, I’m sure Thomas will need help shunting together a coal train to take to Muffle Mountain.”

Sunset was surprised as she understood it, looking at Thomas. “You’re inviting us to go to Sodor with you?”

Thomas smiled. “Sir Topham Hatt has never been one to turn down extra engines to help around the island.”

Sunset and the others seemed excited at the chance, but then Spike spoke up. “Wait a sec; if we go onto the Magic Railroad, would that mean we’d turn into trains?”

Gordon looked at him and shrugged. “Coming here turned us into people. Why not the other way ‘round?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Well, it _is_ Saturday tomorrow.” she brought up.

“I’m in.” Sunset nodded, and all the others agreed with little argument.

“Well before we start running home, what say we all get some sleep?” Henry stretched. “I’m exhausted.”

James smiled. “You’ll get no argument from me, Henry. Good night everyone.” And with that, James simply tucked himself into sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor.

“You guys sure you’ll be okay?” asked Sunset.

“I suppose it will be a bit difficult to sleep not standing up, but I think I can get used to it.” Gordon shrugged as he laid down. “Oh, actually yes; this is quite comfortable. Well, good night everyone.” Soon enough, everyone was tucked in for the evening and fast asleep.

Well… almost everyone. Sunset waited until no one would notice her and pulled her journal out of her bedside table. She opened it to a blank page and smiled as she wrote. “ _Dear Princess Twilight, you’ll never believe the week I’ve been having so far…_ ”


	12. It's Great To Be An Engine

The next morning, the whole group met near the school statue, ready to go. Principal Celestia had met with them as well, worried about this expedition they were about to go on. “Are you sure this is the best course of action?” she asked.

“It’s the best idea we’ve had so far, so it’s worth a try.” Thomas shrugged. “Just remember; we don’t know how long we’ll be gone so please keep an eye on Lady. Diesel 10, or Splatter and Dodge might show up to try and attack her while we’re gone.”

“Don’t worry, Luna’s looking into Ms. Stone’s background as we speak,” Celestia assured. “As soon as she finds something, we’ll have it written down ready for you when you get back.”

Thomas nodded. “Thank you.” He smiled at his friends, new and old. “Alright, ladies first.”

Sunset smiled and blushed a bit. “My, such a gentleman.”

She was just about to enter the portal when… “Wait!” Rainbow stopped her and everyone else. “I just realized; if the portal _does_ turn us into trains, are we still gonna be able to use our magic?”

Twilight seemed surprised that she hadn’t realized that sooner, as she put a hand to her chin contemplatively. “Huh. Didn’t think about that. _Are_ we gonna be able to use our magic?”

Sunset smirked. “Only one way to find out.” Without anything else to say, Sunset jumped through the portal and disappeared.

Thomas smiled at his friends and winked. “We’ll meet you on Sodor.”

~~~~~~~~

Once through the portal, he felt fog clear from his head… and a familiar heat roar from his back. He looked down and smiled when he saw his buffers. He hadn’t been a tank engine for the last two days, and he had almost forgotten what it felt like to stand on six small wheels instead of two long legs. Looking around, he was surprised to see that the Magic Railway looking a bit better than it was last time he was there; the thickets were shrinking, the rails were much less bumpy and a muted sunlight shone through the clouds. He had no idea how though; Lady couldn’t have returned for a quick visit… could she?

Looking up ahead, he was surprised to see a large engine with a very familiar face. “Cinders and Ashes! Sunset?!”

Sunset was still dazed from the transformation as her vision returned to her. She was more than a bit surprised to see Thomas sitting on the line right in front of her in his engine form, but was more confused than anything. “Thomas?” She looked where his eyes were going and was confused; he looked like he was looking her over. “What’s the matter?” She tried to reach out to him, but found she had no hands to do so. She looked around and found she couldn’t move her face an inch. Looking down, she saw why, because instead of the human body she had gotten used to over the years, she instead saw a bright red bufferbeam and purple cowcatcher. “Whoa! That actually worked? I’m an engine now!”

And she was; the portal had transformed her into a large Beyer & Peacock “N3” Vapor tender engine with a red smokebox and funnel streaked with yellow in the same pattern as her hair, a brass whistle on her rear dome and handrail around her boiler, bright amber paint with red wheels in a 2-6-0 arrangement (eight on her tender) and black connecting rods and cylinders, her emblem painted on the sides of her tender under purple handrails around the top as well as her cowcatcher, and a large red and orange lamp in front of her funnel, clearly created from her geode.

It was certainly unnatural for her; everything felt restricted, heavy, and dense and hollow at the same time. It was a totally different kind of alien than her first time as a human, but silver lining; at least now she had a fairly good feeling of how Thomas felt when he arrived at CHS. “Uh… H-How do I look?”

Thomas smiled. “Splendid. You look like you’d fit right in on Sodor.” Sunset smiled; she was glad to hear that.

“Everything feels kinda… weird. Like I’m not really all the way here.” She wasn’t sure how else to describe it. “I feel a lot heavier. And kinda empty.”

Thomas smiled as he looked behind her. “Well, the tender’s probably to blame for some of that weight.” Then he realized something; they weren’t very far from the portal, so he came to a consensus. “We’d better move; we need to free up the line for the others.”

“Oh yeah, right.” Sunset agreed, before she realized something. “How?”

Thomas was surprised. “You can’t move?”

“Not an inch.” Sunset agreed. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Let’s just go through and tell the others you and your friends will have to go alone.”

Thomas sighed, knowing she was right. But then an idea flew into his funnel, and he smiled. “Well, we’re friends, aren’t we?” Sunset seemed confused at the question. “Then you’re coming too.” With that, he whistled a loud **“Peep-Peep!”** and buffered up to her front end. “Maybe you just need a little push in the right direction.” Sunset smiled at her friend as he put on steam. He strained and struggled, his wheels slipping wildly on the rails behind her weight before finally, the two engines slowly eased down the line.

Sunset felt something strange coming from her back… as if a strange heat was building in her cab. Finally, she felt something else; a large blast of steam roared from a valve near her piston and jetted into Thomas’ face. “Oh jeez, sorry!” Sunset said quickly; she didn’t mean to wheesh Thomas in the face.

But Thomas just smiled. “Well done Sunset. You just built up steam. That means you’re not far away from full puffing.” Thomas gave a happy **“Peep-Peep!”** on his whistle.

Sunset smiled too and found herself giving a loud **“Hoot-Hoot!”** on her own whistle. “Whoa!” This just made her and Thomas both even happier.

But then something happened to make them even happier; Sunset’s wheels started turning without Thomas’ help and she started reversing down the line. Thomas smiled. “Well done Sunset. You’ve done it!” Thomas couldn’t help but give one more whistle as Sunset started picking up speed.

Sunset whistled right back and smiled. “Where to, Thomas?”

“Sodor, of course.” The points behind Sunset quickly switched and Sunset roared through them, finding herself near a small grotto. Quickly, she squeaked her brakes on as she slid down a small siding in a shed-yard nearby. Thomas quickly followed her and smiled as he parked in the yard as well. “We’ll have to wait here for the others.”

Sunset just smiled. “Are you kidding? I don’t wanna wait. I wanna go for a run.”

She almost steamed out of her siding before Thomas steamed forward and blocked her track. “We’ll get to that. Right now, we have to let the others catch up.” It didn’t take long as Edward swiftly steamed out of the buffers with a bright purple tank engine and brakevan steaming slowly out behind him.

“Twilight? Spike?” Sunset was right to be surprised; Twilight was a TVR O2 tank engine with a dark sapphire smokebox and funnel with her purple and rose hair highlights were shown as painted stripes on the sides of her smokebox. Her brass whistle was on her boiler right in front of her cab and her main bodywork was bright lavender while her side tanks were a darker purple with her emblem painted on the sides, with bright pastel blue wheels in a 0-6-2 configuration and raspberry coupling rods and her glasses still rested on her nose despite the absence of any actual temples and her own geode lamp on the front right of her running plate.

Spike was coupled on behind her in the form of a purple LSWR 10-ton goods brakevan with a green roof and wheels, facing backward toward the buffers. Edward was doing his best to calm Twilight down, but he knew it was an uphill battle as she was freaking out. Thomas just smiled and whistled loudly, shaking Twilight from her freak-out. “Calm down Twilight, it just takes a bit of getting used to.”

“Speak for yourself,” Twilight argued. “This is what you normally look like. This is just too crazy for me!”

Spike just rolled his eyes. “Yeah, she’s like this a lot when something weird happens.”

“We’ve noticed.” Edward agreed as he shunted them both into another siding in the yard.

Suddenly a loud musical whistle roared from the buffers along with a familiar voice. “Incoming!!!” It was Pinkie Pie who swiftly roared out of the buffers alone, which surprised the other engines; how could she have gotten control of her steam so quickly?

She was an NS 7742 “Bello” tank engine with a bright rose smokebox and funnel with bright blue around the rim of the funnel, a brass dome on the middle of her boiler and whistle on top of her white cab roof, bright pink paint with blue banding for bodywork with her balloon emblem on her side-bunkers, dark pink pistons with white coupling rods connecting her dark pink 0-6-0 wheels. Her buffers were bright white and her pink geode lamp sat on the left of her bufferbeam.

The first thing she did as soon as she ran out of the buffers was dash over to some troublesome trucks parked nearby and started bumping them around, laughing like she was having the time of her life. Percy quickly puffed out of the buffers after her in great concern. “Don’t bump the trucks so much Pinkie. They can be fairly troublesome,” he warned as he parked.

Twilight seemed fairly surprised and scoffed. “Please. How bad could trucks be without propulsion systems?”

“Don’t let their appearances fool you Twilight,” Edward assured. “Trucks are a menace to the railway; they can push engines right off the rails and have on numerous occasions. Especially if the engines are rough with them.” Pinkie realized what that might mean and stopped shunting.

Well, she gave a boxcar one last bump for fun. “OW!” the truck yelled. Pinkie giggled and steamed into a siding with the others.

Edward just rolled his eyes. “If you get those trucks on a goods train, don’t say we didn’t warn you.”

Suddenly the buffers opened again and from them came Gordon and Toby, as well as Rainbow and Applejack, who amazed all the others.

Rainbow Dash was a PR E7 Atlantic engine with a rainbow-colored smokebox and funnel, a brass whistle in front of her orange-roofed cab, bright blue bodywork with a red, purple, and green stripe on her boiler, her thunderbolt emblem on her tender, brilliant amaranth cylinders with navy blue coupling rods connecting her green 4-4-2 wheels. Her cowcatcher was a deep purple and her blue geode lamp rested on a ledge built into the front of her smokebox.

Applejack was a massive ČSD series 486.0 tender engine with a blonde smokebox and funnel, brown Wagner-type smoke deflectors, a small brass whistle on her boiler near her denim-roofed cab, bright gamboge bodywork with red banding around her boiler, her apple emblem on her tender, a white running plate above her red bufferbeam, bright orange cylinders with sap green coupling rods connecting her brown 4-8-2 wheels, and her orange-red geode lamp on the right side of her bufferbeam.

“Whoo!” Rainbow smiled as she backed into another siding near the others. “Man, this place looks great in person.”

“Color me impressed.” Applejack smiled as she steamed back. “This land must go on for miles.”

“Where’re the others?” asked Sunset.

Emily answered her question when she exited the buffers followed by James and Henry, and behind them were Rarity and Fluttershy.

Fluttershy appeared to be a unique spin on an E 3/3 3 “Beinwil” tank engine with a bright pale pink smokebox and funnel, a small brass whistle on top of her light pale opal cab roof, pale gold-yellow cab and sandboxes, light cyan boiler with pale opal banding, her butterfly emblem on her bunkers, pale gold cylinders and coupling rods connecting her pale gray-pink wheels in a unique 0-8-0 configuration, and her bright pink geode lamp on her smokebox in front of her funnel.

Rarity was an NSB 21c Class tender engine with a moderate indigo smokebox funnel with an ornate pattern of purple lines along the sides, a tall brass whistle on top of her third dome before her violet-roofed cab, blindingly light gray bodywork with purple banding around her boiler, her diamond emblem on her tender, gleaming cyan cylinders with light cornflower blue coupling rods connecting her mulberry purple 2-6-0 wheels, and her indigo geode lamp on the right of her bufferbeam.

Fluttershy looked like she was still getting used to her pistons as she jerked along the line like a stick-shift car with a first-time driver behind the wheel while Rarity appeared to glide along like she was built this way years ago. Still, they were all amazed as they arrived in the shed-yard.

Thomas smiled. “Well everyone, welcome to Sodor.”

Sunset smiled. “It’s beautiful, Thomas.”

James just laughed. “You haven’t seen anything. Just wait until you see the mainline. What say we start at Knapford?” He didn’t wait for an answer before he whistled and steamed away.

Thomas smiled. “Well, we might as well. Cmon!” He whistled as well as he and his friends all joined James on the track to the mainline.

Sunset smiled at her friends and they all just whistled, steaming after the others.

**(Play “It’s Great To Be An Engine!” – headmaster Hastings cover)**

While they were steaming down the mainline, the girls were surprised to hear music coming from Thomas’ cab… until they saw a small radio on his footplate. He smiled as he gave a loud whistle and started singing with his friends as they steamed past other engines each of which whistled or honked at them as they passed.

 _Thomas: Oh yes, It’s Great To Be An Engine and go steaming along  
Puff-puff-puffing along _(first Neville) _, Peep-peep-peeping along_ (then Winston the Furness Engine)  
 _All the people waving as you speed along  
Puff-puff-puffing along, all day!_

_Percy: We’re all so proud to be famous engines_

_Toby: And travel through the countryside_

_Edward: We’re always brave when there’s hills to climb  
No mountain… is too high…!_ (William the Great Western Engine)

_Thomas, Percy & James: Oh yes, It’s Great To Be An Engine as you’re steaming along_

_James: Puff-puff-puffing along_ (Rosie and Oliver)

 _Percy: Peep-peep-peeping along_ (Ryan and Daisy)

_Thomas, Percy & James: Fly along the rails as your wheels go ‘round  
Whiz-whiz-whizzing around, all day!_

_Gordon: It doesn’t matter come rain or shine_

_Henry: There’s always things for us to do_

_James: And in the cold, cold wintertime, we’re ready…_

_Emily: When you light the fire and stoke the boiler, and we’ll be there for you!_

_Steam Team: Oh yes, It’s Great To Be An Engine as you’re steaming along_

_Gordon & Edward: Puff-puff-puffing along_ (Arthur)

 _Henry & Toby: Peep-peep-peeping along_ (Henry whistled here as the cavalcade thundered through Arlesdale Road Station)

_Steam Team: Feel the wind around you as you push along  
Puff-puff-puffing along, all day_

Presently, they passed under a road bridge where three children were standing. Sunset’s sharp hearing quickly locked onto what they were saying. “Whoa! Did you see that? Seven new engines!” said a boy.

“They’re lovely!” said a girl.

“I wonder what it would be like to be an engine.” said the boy.

Another boy just laughed. “People can’t be engines.”

Sunset just smirked. “Oh, if only you knew.” Now the girls were getting into the music and joined in as they passed Elsbridge Station.

_All: Oh yes, It’s Great To Be An Engine and go steaming along_

_Twilight & Rarity: Puff-puff-puffing along _(Hiro)

 _Pinkie & Fluttershy: Peep-peep-peeping along _(Paxton)

_All: All the people waving as you speed along  
Puff-puff-puffing along all day_

_Oh yes, It’s Great To Be An Engine as you’re steaming along_

_Rainbow & Applejack: Puff-puff-puffing along_ (Gordon and Rebecca whistled at each other as she passed with a passenger train)

 _Sunset & Thomas: Peep-peep-peeping along_ (Thomas and Percy whistled to Harold as they passed Dryaw Airfield)

_All: Fly along the rails as your wheels go ‘round  
Puff-puff-puffing along_

_Peep-peep-peeping, and_   
_Puff-puff-puffing, and_   
_Steam around all day!_

**(Cut it)**

Finally, they arrived at Knapford Shunting Yard where Thomas whistled loudly to attract the attention of Sir Topham Hatt who quickly dashed out of the station to find them all there parked on various tracks.

“Thomas?” Sir Topham Hatt sounded more surprised than anything else. “What’re you doing back so soon? And where’s Lady?” But then he realized something else. “And who are all these engines?”

Thomas smiled. “It’s a bit of a long story, but to make it simple, Lady’s lost her memory and we think Mr. Stone might be the only one who can help her. So we’re here to pick up a train of Sodor coal to bring him.”

Gordon cleared his proverbial throat and looked at Sir Topham Hatt himself. “And while we’re here, we thought we might also do our jobs, maybe show our new friends here around the railway.”

“Ah, I see.” Sir Topham smiled as he stepped forward. “Well, the workload has backed up a bit with everyone doing your jobs as well as their own, so if they’re really useful, they’ll fit right in.” He walked over to the newcomers and tipped his hat to them. “Welcome to the North-Western Railway. I’m the railway’s director, Sir Topham Hatt.”

Sunset smiled. “Nice to meet you, Sir. I’m Sunset Shimmer. These are my friends Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle and her d- uh, _brakevan_ Spike.” She almost said dog but saved herself just in time.

Sir Topham raised an eyebrow at this as if these names seemed bizarre to him. Thomas quickly explained. “They’re guests from the other world we found Lady in.”

Sir Topham Hatt was surprised but shrugged. “Well, if you think you can be useful, I’d be more than happy to have you here to prove it. But first things first…” He turned to his own engines. “Henry, there’s a Morning Kipper waiting for you at Brendam and then a goods train at Barrow. You know what to do.”

“Right away, Sir.” Henry smiled and steamed slowly away.

“Gordon, Spencer’s broken down outside Maron Station.” Sir Topham resumed. “The Duke and Duchess have requested you as a temporary replacement.”

“Ah, very good sir.” Gordon smiled. “Though I must ask; what about my express?”

“I can take it.” Rainbow offered. “Just tell me where to go and I’ll be on my way.”

Gordon smiled. “Very well then. Have the stationmaster give you the route and be ready to leave once you have your passengers.” The others were surprised; usually, Gordon was very protective of his express, rarely wanting anyone else to pull it.

James just smiled knowingly. “You must be quite fond of Rainbow if you’re willing to let her take your express, eh Gordon?”

Gordon just rolled his eyes. “Hardly. I just don’t want to have my coaches’ brake-pipes damaged and have to be repaired with newspaper and bootlaces.” Everyone laughed at that as Gordon steamed off to Maron, leaving James seething in anger.

“Calm down James, I still need you for the stopping service to Vicarstown.” Sir Topham ordered. “Then I need you to bring a train of urgently needed parts to the Steamworks.”

James smiled; those were both very important jobs. “Yes Sir.” And he steamed to the station-yard.

“Percy, I’ll need you around the station to shunt these trains before you get on with your mail run.” Sir Topham continued.

“Right away Sir.” Percy agreed as he puffed to work.

“Ooh! Can I help, Sir?” Pinkie asked excitedly.

Sir Topham smiled. “Certainly. Percy will tell you where to shunt everything. Then once that’s done, I suppose I can have you take those sugar vans to the chocolate factory at Kildane.” Pinkie’s face immediately brightened unbelievably. “Then you can handle their chocolate deliveries.” Pinkie was incredibly happy and raced off to shunt with Percy without hesitation. Sir Topham had to hold his hat down to keep it from blowing away after her. “Energetic, isn’t she?”

Applejack chuckled. “Ya get used to it.”

“I’m sure.” he shrugged. “Now. Edward, you’ll be working on the China Clay Pits branch. The foreman will give you your assignments there. Keep a close eye on Bill and Ben.”

“Don’t I always, Sir?” Edward smiled as he steamed off.

“Toby, quarry work for you. Mavis has been doing all she can, but she definitely needs your help.” Sir Topham continued. “And after that, Henrietta’s been feeling lonely.”

“Right away, Sir.” agreed Toby and he chuffed slowly away.

“Emily, you’ll be working track inspection up the Little Western.” Sir Topham ordered. “Donald and Douglas have been complaining about a rough stretch of track near Arlesburgh West. Then it’s on to your usual passenger runs.” He looked over his schedule and smiled as he made a decision. “And take Twilight with you as well. The Skarloey railway has put in a large order of ballast and I need an engine with a brakevan to move it.”

“Yes Sir.” Emily agreed as she led Twilight and Spike out of the yard.

“Thomas, I’ll put in an order with the coaling plant for your train.” he continued. “But in the meantime, Rosie’s been doing a good job with your branch line, but I’m sure Annie and Clarabel miss you.”

Thomas smiled. “I miss them too, Sir. I’m on my way.” He whistled as he steamed away. “See you later, Sunset.”

Sunset just whistled back as Thomas steamed away. “Now, as for the rest of you… uh, ah yes. Rainbow Dash, the express will be waiting for you at Platform 1. Be quick about it.”

“Already on it,” she smirked as she backed away.

“Fluttershy, there’s been a storm recently so some of the trees in Henry’s Forest have been uprooted.” This news worried the quiet engine, but she was hopeful for what that might mean. “There’s a train of saplings waiting to be delivered there at Crovan’s Gate.”

Fluttershy just smiled. “Y-Yes, sir.” Her whistle was quiet, but she still gave a meaningful **“toot-toot”** as she steamed slowly away.

Applejack just smiled. “She’s just not the most social engine,” she explained.

“So I see.” Sir Topham noted. “Anyway, there’s a stopping goods bound for Vicarstown waiting at Brendam Docks. Murdoch was supposed to take it, but he’s laid-up at the Steamworks for the day; severe boiler-ache. Think you can handle it?”

Applejack smiled. “No problem, Sir.” Her whistle was loud and strong, as evidenced by the loud **“HOOT-HOOT!”** it screeched as she steamed away.

Sir Topham took a moment to compose himself before he turned to Rarity. “You seem like you might be popular with passengers. There should be a train for Ulfstead Castle waiting for you at Platform 5. Can you take it?”

Rarity smiled. “I can’t think of anything I’d rather do, Sir.” Her whistle was much kinder with a high-pitched kind **“Choo-Choo!”** as she steamed to the station, leaving only Sunset left in the yard.

“Sunset, market season is coming up and the farmers around the island need their produce and livestock moved.” Sir Topham ordered. “Are you willing to be on call?”

“I’ll do my best, Sir.” agreed Sunset.

“That’s a good engine.” he smiled. “Now, before you go anywhere, would you mind giving me a ride back to the station?”

Sunset just chuckled. “All aboard, Sir.” Sir Topham Hatt climbed aboard and Sunset steamed to the station. “Y’know, I think I’m gonna like it here.”


	13. Railway Work

Soon enough, Percy and Pinkie had shunted together the trains for the day. Rainbow’s express was at Platform 1, James’ stopping train was at Platform 2, Percy’s mail train was at Platform 3, Pinkie’s sugar vans were at Platform 4, Rarity’s coaches were at Platform 5, and Sunset was on the track next to that with a brakevan. Several of the others were parked near the station ready to leave for their own jobs.

Sir Topham Hatt surveyed the station from Platform 1 and smiled. “Excellent. Everything looks to be ready for the day,” he said proudly. “Now everyone, don’t forget your three R’s.”

“Reading, writing, and arithmetic?” Everyone just laughed at Twilight’s comedic remark, intended or not.

“No-no, Twilight.” Edward smiled. “The three R’s on Sodor is ‘Always be Responsible, Reliable, and Really Useful’.”

“Oh. Right.” Twilight blushed bright red. “Well, don’t I look like an idiot.”

Emily just chuckled. “No need to worry Twilight, it’s all a part of running a railway.” Just then, the conductor on Platform 1 blew his whistle.

“Speaking of which, that’s your cue Rainbow Dash.” Sir Topham smiled. “You’d best be off to Wellsworth.”

“On my way.” Rainbow smiled as she steamed away, dragging the coaches along behind her. Gordon swiftly followed after her to head to Maron for his job.

Then another conductor’s whistle blew. James smiled and let out a proud **“Peep-Peep!”** as he rumbled out of the station with his passengers.

And another, prompting Percy to make way with his mail train to Dryaw before Pinkie swiftly followed with her sugar trucks.

Rarity smiled as she looked around the platform. “Final call for Ulfstead Castle.” A few more passengers climbed aboard her small coaches just before the conductor blew his whistle. Rarity smiled as she glided out of the station with her train.

Once she was gone, Sunset steamed out of the station as well, the brakevan clattering and clanking behind her.

With the station clear, all the other engines quickly set about their work; Henry and Edward led Applejack to the docks, Fluttershy left for Crovan’s Gate, Thomas and Toby left for the Ffarquhar branch line, and Emily led Twilight and Spike to the Little Western.

~~~~~~~~~

Rainbow Dash rumbled through the countryside, happy she got to see the island like this, especially pulling such a special train. She was so caught up in sightseeing that she almost forgot to stop at Wellsworth Station until she heard Gordon’s whistle behind her. “I say, do remember your timetables dear Rainbow.”

“What? Oh right.” Quickly she slowed to a stop at the station, right on time. “Whew. Thanks, Gordon.”

“Think nothing of it.” The big engine smiled. “Now if you’ll excuse me, the Duke and Duchess await me.” Another loud **“Poop-Poop!”** on his whistle and Gordon rumbled out of Wellsworth toward Maron to collect his special passengers. Rainbow smiled; she thought she might like this job.

Suddenly, two high-pitched whistles sounded behind her and into the station on the left track with a few brakevans rumbled Bill and Ben, looking mischievous as ever. “Well look here Ben, a rainbow engine.”

“I see it Bill, and look; it’s got the express.” Ben giggled. “Is that you Gordon? Trying a new look?”

Rainbow smirked; that was actually pretty funny, but it quickly stopped being funny as they continued. “No-no Ben, this isn’t Gordon. It must be some sort of rainbow rust engine. We’d best take it to the scrapyard.”

“You wanna say that again?” Rainbow growled crossly and wheeshed them hard.

Bill and Ben coughed on the smoke and steam before Ben just smirked again. “She’s right Bill, she’s useless for scrap. We’ll just take her to the docks and throw her in the sea.”

That just scared Rainbow even more until a loud horn sounded around the yard, which seemed to scare the twins who quickly scampered away down the line as BoCo rumbled into the station with a freight train. Rainbow smiled. “Thanks. Those guys were kinda scaring me.”

“Ah, never mind.” BoCo agreed. “Bill and Ben are hard-workers, bless ‘em, but they rarely ever know when to stop joking around. Edward’s the only one who can really keep them in order.” Then a loud familiar whistle sounded through the yard as three engines rumbled into the yard. “Speaking of whom.”

And sure enough; Edward, Henry, and Applejack rumbled into the station yard on the middle track. “Ah, Rainbow Dash. I see you’ve met BoCo.”

“And the twins, I’m afraid,” BoCo added.

“Oh, fizzling fireboxes.” Edward rolled his eyes. “Sorry about them, Rainbow. I’ll talk to them later.”

“Ah, it’s fine.” Rainbow smiled. “I’m too awesome to let a couple of nutbars like them get me down.” Her conductor blew his whistle and Rainbow smiled as she built up steam. “And that’s my cue to leave. See ya, guys!” She slowly steamed away with the train clattering along behind her.

BoCo smiled. “Hard worker, that one.”

Applejack smiled. “Yeah, she’s pretty determined. Still, she can be kinda full of herself.” She steamed up and smiled. “Sorry uh… BoCo, right?”

“Yes. And you are?”

“Name’s Applejack. Dash and I are visitin’ with some friends of ours,” she explained.

“We were just taking her down to the docks for Murdoch’s slow goods,” Henry explained.

“Oh dear, is Murdoch’s boiler acting up again?” asked BoCo.

“Afraid so. Still, I’m sure Applejack can handle his train, can’t you old girl?” asked Edward.

Applejack smiled. “Piece o’ cake.”

“Well then, if you two will excuse me, I’d best get down to the clay pits to keep an eye on the twins.” Edward smiled and steamed away. Henry and Applejack followed close behind.

~~~~~~~~

Brendam Docks was busy as ever today with truckloads of cargo being shifted to and from ships all across the harbor. Finally, Henry and Applejack stopped on the main harbor tracks as Edward rumbled through to the clay pits.

Once he was gone, Salty the dockyard diesel rattled up to them with a honk of his horn. “Ah, ahoy thar me hearties. Ye’re right on time fer the Kipper, Henry. She’s waitin’ for ya down on 2 near the warehouses.”

Henry smiled; leave it to Salty to make sure everything was in order. “Thanks, Salty. This is Applejack; she’s here to take Murdoch’s goods train.”

“Aye-aye, skipper.” Salty smiled toothily, looking at a long line of heavy cars next to him. “Yer train’s right ‘ere, still loadin’ up.” He honked again as he looked up to the crane. “Ahoy thar, Cranky! How much longer ‘till this train’s ready?!”

“Gimme a minute; this is the last one!” Cranky called down as he winched a large crate onto a flatbed near the front of the train. Once it was unchained from his hook, the dockworkers quickly strapped it down with strong cables.

“All set!” yelled one of the men.

“Ha-Har! Thar ya are, lass.” Salty smiled. “Off ya get.”

“Thanks, partner. Lemme just get turned around, and I’m outta here.” Applejack steamed over to the yard for a spin on the turntable so she was facing the right way, as Henry had told her on the way that it was dangerous for tender engines to go backward at high speeds.

Soon enough, she had pulled up to the front of her train and buffered up to it, finding herself right at the platform of the Sodor Shipping Company office near the exit of the docks. A dockworker came with a shunter’s pole to couple her to the train as the dock manager walked up to her. “Don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”

“I’m visitin’ with some friends. Name’s Applejack.”

“Alright. Now remember; you’ll have to stop at stations all along the route to Vicarstown.” the manager explained. “You’ll pick up and drop off trucks at every station until you arrive at Vicarstown. There, you’ll drop everything you’ve collected.”

“Got it.” Applejack smiled as the dockworker with the pole walked around to the manager.

“All set, sir.” As if by perfect timing, Henry steamed up next to Applejack with a long line of vans behind him.

“Hold back, hold back.” Applejack’s trucks laughed to each other, all locking their brakes on.

What they didn’t know was that Applejack heard them, so once her and Henry’s green flags dropped, Applejack concentrated as hard as she could and her geode lamp started gleaming. Both engines rumbled out of the stations, with Applejack’s strength stunning the trucks as she hauled the heavy train away as easy as pie, forced to release their brakes or risk irreparable damage. Applejack smiled as it felt much easier so she turned her lamp off, lessening her strength so she could take her train easily. “So where you takin’ that?”

“The mainland. Non-stop trainload of Sodor-caught fish for the markets of Britain.” Henry smiled proudly and sped up.

Applejack decided to keep that under her funnel from Fluttershy; she’d never forgive him for transporting fish.

~~~~~~~

Speaking of Fluttershy, she had only just arrived at Crovan’s Gate Station to find a short line of empty trucks waiting for her at the transfer platform… but no one else was there. At least, no one she could see. “Um… hello?”

She was suddenly scared by a loud whistle and hid behind her trucks, peeking through the cracks between the trucks to see Skarloey pulling in with a train of saplings. He looked around in confusion for some reason until his eyes locked near her and he smiled. “I can see you.” Fluttershy seemed surprised by him saying this but only reversed slowly further behind the trucks, trying to hide her face. Skarloey still smiled. “A bit of advice; if you want to stay hidden, get a less prominent funnel.”

Fluttershy looked and realized he was right; she was short, but her funnel was taller than the trucks by at least a few feet. And even if it weren’t, the pale pink color would make her stand out a mile away. She sighed and slowly steamed forward around to the front of her train. “H- H-Hello.”

Skarloey smiled. “What’s wrong? Is this your first time seeing a narrow gauge engine?”

“Mm-hm.” Fluttershy was embarrassed, but couldn’t help but say so.

Skarloey just chuckled. “Well, just be thankful your first encounter was with me and not Duncan. He’s a bit of a grump.” he smiled. “But enough gloom; I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”

“Oh. Um, I’m- I’m here visiting with m-my friends.” she stuttered as the men moved the saplings from Skarloey’s trucks to Fluttershy’s.

“Well, if you’re interested in one more friend, let me introduce myself.” the old engine smiled. “I’m Skarloey.”

Fluttershy smiled; he seemed very friendly, so she felt she could trust him. “I’m Fluttershy.”

Skarloey raised an eyebrow. “Odd name.” Fluttershy smirked and raised an eyebrow of her own, as if to ask, _“Coming from an engine named Skarloey?”_. The old engine gave a kind chuckle. “It’s Welsh, my dear. My brother Rheneas and I have worked this line for years.”

Soon enough, one of the men walked over to Skarloey. “Alright Skarloey, you’re all set to go.”

Skarloey smiled. “If you or any of your friends are in the area while you’re on Sodor, drop by the Norramby Wharf or Blue Mountain Quarry. We’re always willing to accept some help.” With that, he gave a kind whistle and steamed out of the station.

Fluttershy seemed happy about her new friend Skarloey. She was just building up steam to get ready to leave when another two whistles sounded, one of which she recognized, especially with the engine that rumbled into a stop at the station. “Hello Rainbow Dash.”

“Hey, Fluttershy. Are these the saplings for the forest?” she asked.

“Mm-hm.” she smiled. “But um… I don’t know where the forest is.”

“Well, I ran into Henry outside this place called Cronk; he says you just follow the track north until you start seeing trees. Trevor will be waiting for you.” Rainbow explained.

Just then, the source of the other whistle made itself known as Sir Handel pulled into the station with a line of coaches. “Hello there. You have to be Rainbow Dash.” Rainbow seemed surprised. “Sir Topham Hatt called the stationmaster up at Glennock; told me you were taking the express for Gordon.” Rainbow smiled. “I’m Sir Handel. Please see my passengers to Vicarstown.” Then he glanced at Fluttershy and smiled. “Ah, you must be… gah, what did Skarloey call you? Uh… Flu-Flu…”

“Fluttershy?” suggested Rainbow.

“That’s it.” Sir Handel smiled as he steamed around to the other end of his train. “Well, he was certainly right; you seem like a nice engine.”

Just then, a porter came up. “Sorry to interrupt, but your train’s loaded Fluttershy. You’re all clear.”

“Oh um, thank you.” Fluttershy smiled and puffed slowly out of the station.

Sir Handel looked at Rainbow with confusion on his face, but Rainbow just smiled. “She’s not called Flutter _shy_ for nothing.”

Sir Handel smiled. “So I gathered.”

~~~~~~~~

Across the island, Pinkie was having the time of her life; she was taking a train full of sugar to a chocolate factory. Soon enough, she arrived and smiled at the workers. “Sugar delivery!” she called.

The workmen smiled as she shunted the trucks up to a platform near the factory. The foreman seemed happy to see her. “You must be Pinkie Pie.” Pinkie gasped, but the foreman just raised a hand. “And before you ask, Sir Topham Hatt called ahead and told us you would be coming. And that you’re a bit eccentric.” Pinkie seemed disappointed by this but still smiled. “Anyway, there’re your chocolate vans.” Pinkie looked over to another side-track and smiled at the familiar chocolaty smell coming from the vans. “Now remember; two vans to every station on the mainline.”

Pinkie just smiled as she zipped over and buffered up. “Okie-dokie-lokie!” Once she was coupled up, she whistled and rumbled away back the way she came. If this was the work she was up for, she would love it.

~~~~~~~~

Emily had led Twilight and Spike up to Arlesburgh West Station where they found Duck at the platform with his two auto-coaches Alice and Mirabel. Emily smiled and gave him a happy **“Peep-Peep!”** as they stopped next to him. Duck smiled and replied with his own lower-pitched **“Peep-Peep!”**. “Hello, Emily. You here about the tracks?”

“Sure enough.” she agreed. “Duck, this is Twilight and Spike; they’re here to pick up that load of ballast for the Skarloey Railway.”

“Ah, welcome to the Little Western.” Duck smiled, looking up the line to a rig of metal over the track with a line of trucks under it. “The ballast chute is up there. Park under that and Mike and the others will load up your trucks. You can take ‘em from there.”

Twilight smiled. “Sounds easy enough.” With that, she steamed toward the chute, Spike still clattering behind her.

Duck just chuckled. “Yeah, that’s what they all say at first.”

Spike heard that and was confused. “Wait, what do you mean by that?”

“I mean ballast trucks are a lot rougher than any other trucks.” Duck warned. “Take care out on the mainline.”

Twilight smiled. “Thanks, Duck.” Then she stopped as she was shunting Spike up to the trucks. “Wait, why _are_ you called ‘Duck’ anyway?”

Duck just smiled. “It’s just a nickname. My real name is Montague, but I prefer Duck. People started calling me that because they say I waddle.”

Twilight giggled until she saw Mike the Miniature Engine rumbling up the hill chute with a line of ballast hoppers. “Oh, hello. I’m guessing you’re Mike.”

“That I am,” Mike noted, the bottoms sliding out from his hoppers and falling into the trucks below. “Just get set around front and I’ll have you loaded up in a jiff.” Twilight smiled as she steamed away to the front of the train. “Sooner the better, honestly,” Mike muttered that, but Twilight still heard him.

She looked at Emily as she steamed past to inspect the track. “Ah, don’t mind Mike; he prefers passengers to freight like ballast.” Twilight giggled again as she was coupled up to the trucks.

Soon enough, her trucks were loaded and Mike rumbled down the chute. “Alright, you’re all set to go. Take this to Crovan’s Gate and you’ll be done.”

Twilight smiled and whistled as she steamed away down the line toward Crovan’s Gate. She smiled as she rumbled through the station, the trucks clattering and chattering behind her.

~~~~~~~~

Rarity steamed strongly up the slope with her coaches rumbling behind her until she reached the great castle at the top. Once there, she was admittedly in awe of the fort’s grand splendor as she coasted up… though this was dashed as she saw the only way into the castle was via the raised drawbridge. Without a second thought, she slowed down cautiously, soon coming to a complete stop as she saw a platform near where she was stopping.

Braking just enough for her coaches to arrive at the platform, her passengers easily disembarked and lauded her for a smooth luxurious ride, which made her feel very proud. Just then, a high-pitched whistle cut through the air nearby and up next to her rolled Stephen with a train of open passenger cars, his brass-crowned funnel shining like gold in the afternoon sun. Rarity was surprised. “My heavens. You might be the oldest engine I’ve seen on this railway.”

Stephen just chuckled. “Well, I may be old but I’m still useful.” he smiled. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Stephen.”

Rarity smiled as her passengers boarded Stephen’s carriages. “A pleasure, Stephen. I am Rarity.”

Stephen smiled. “Well, I hope you’ll be by again soon. We could always use help around the castle.” With that, he gave another kind **“Toot-Toot!”** on his whistle and steamed away with his passengers.

Rarity was quietly pleased to know there were such gentlemen on Sodor. With this knowledge in hand, she foresaw many other visits to Ulfstead Castle in her future. But in the meantime, she decided to simply head back to Knapford to leave her coaches, then to Tidmouth Yard for a good rest.

~~~~~~~~

Elsewhere, Sunset had arrived at Farmer McColl’s farm outside Toryreck, where she found the farmer placing a last crate of what looked like strawberries in an open truck in front of another open truck of milk barrels, a van, and two loaded cattle trucks. He smiled when he saw Sunset approaching. “Ah. You must be Sunset.”

She was surprised. “Yeah. How’d ya know?”

“Farmer Trotter called ahead. He said you were very helpful in getting the straw for his piglets.” Farmer McColl explained.

Sunset grinned. “Just doin’ my job. Speaking of which, where do you want me to take this?”

“Well, the milk is for the dairy at Crosby, the strawberries are for the docks, the eggs are for the bakery at Kirk Ronan and the cows are for the market at Vicarstown.” Farmer McColl explained. “If you want, I can write that down and pin it to your lamp-iron.”

Sunset smiled as she buffered up to her train, having shunted her brakevan to the back. “Don’t worry, Sir. I’ve got a really good memory.” Then a loud whistle sounded down the line. “Though it doesn’t take a memory that good to know who that is.”

Farmer McColl smiled as he looked down the line. “Of course not. Everyone knows Thomas’ whistle.” And sure enough, Thomas was rumbling down the line opposite Sunset with Annie and Clarabel.

Sunset couldn’t help but whistle back as Thomas rumbled by. “Well, I’ll get right on this Sir.”

Farmer McColl smiled. “Thank you Sunset. Trotter was right about you; you’re a really useful engine.” Sunset just smiled as she eased away with her train; she was really happy about her new responsibilities here. If she had her way, she would be back to Sodor very often in the future. And she wasn't the only one who thought that way.


	14. Coaling

At last, the day’s work was nearly done and all the engines had arrived at Tidmouth Sheds. Sunset was impressed; even as an engine, the large roundhouse hardly looked as quaint as Thomas had made it sound the night before. The cream bricks, green doors and windows, and gray roofing tiles made the large roundhouse look magnificent.

Then the girls saw something confusing. “Is it just me or is this place kinda small?” asked Spike.

Toby just smiled. “Yes, I don’t stay here all that often,” he explained. “I have my own shed out at Arlesdale End. It’s small and a bit shoddy, but it’s still home.”

Applejack smiled. “S’pose you’ll be headin’ down there now, eh buddy?”

“I suppose so. See you lot tomorrow.” And with a cheery **“Ding-a-Ling!”** on his bell, Toby chuffered away to his own little shed.

“I must admit I’m fairly impressed.” Rarity smiled after him. “For such an old-fashioned engine, Toby is very powerful.”

Edward smiled right back as he steamed onto the turntable, letting it spin him around. “Well, he may be old but he’s forgotten more about trucks than most engines will ever know.”

Just then, Winston rattled into the yard with Sir Topham Hatt driving. “Good news Thomas, your order at the Crosby Coaling Plant has gone through.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like there’s some bad news coming too.”

“Unfortunately yes.” Sir Topham ran a hand over his head before replacing his top hat. “Logan’s in the Steamworks for repairs, so Thomas, you’ll have to shunt your own trucks.”

Thomas smiled. “No problem, Sir.” he smiled. “Anyone care to help me?”

Sunset steamed up. “I’d be up to it. I’d like to see the place.”

Pinkie zipped over to his side. “Ooh-ooh, me too!” she smiled.

Thomas was a bit worried but smiled anyway. “Alright then, I’ll show you to the plant.”

He slowly steamed off with Sunset and Pinkie following him. “We’ll meet you back at the junction,” Sunset called. The other girls whistled as the three steamed away.

Soon enough, they’d arrived at the large coaling plant outside Crosby, only to find it in a state of disarray. Trucks were scattered everywhere, blocking any engine from the hoppers. “Botheration! We’re sure to be late now,” grumbled Thomas.

“What do you mean? We just need to shunt your train and we’re good to go.” Sunset reminded.

“Yes, but what about the other engines?” asked Thomas. “If Edward or James comes through to fill their tenders, they’ll have to work through all of this and that could take forever.”

Pinkie smiled. “So we can just clear the line. Easy-peasy.” With that, she zipped forward and bumped a few cars hard, making them yell as they ran down the line, bumping into each other.

Thomas was more than a bit worried. “Oh, dear.” He knew this was a lesson every engine had to learn, and they almost all learned it the hard way. And it looked like Pinkie Pie would be no exception.

Still, she was right; they had to clear the lines somehow so he and Sunset set to work shunting as well, though they took far more care as Pinkie simply bumped and bashed them all around the yard.

Finally, the yard was tidied up and the hoppers were accessible. The manager had already told them they needed six trucks, so Pinkie had shunted up a small train. But Thomas was worried about the trucks she’d chosen, especially the truck at the head; Fred Pelhay, one of the oldest friends of Scruffy; a ballast truck Oliver once ripped in half. And just as troublesome with engines other than Oliver.

“Maybe it would be best if I take the train from here,” suggested Thomas. He was still worried the trucks would want to pay her out for being so rough.

“What? Nah, I can handle it.” Pinkie assured… before backing down roughly on the train, making the trucks yell angrily. Sunset and Thomas were both very nervous for her, but she was insistent on taking the train herself.

It was at Kellsthorpe Station where Fred made his play. “Now!” he yelled and the trucks started jerking forward.

“On-on-on! Faster, faster!” they laughed, pushing Pinkie clear through the station.

“Pinkie!” Sunset yelled in concern, racing after her. Thomas rolled his eyes, but steamed after them as well; he knew this would happen, especially with Fred in the train.

Finally, Pinkie ran over the points outside Rolf’s Castle and jumped the track, bouncing over the other lines and scattering coal from the trucks across the line. She was dazed from the accident, and Sunset was worried as she and Thomas steamed up. “Pinkie, are you okay?” she asked.

“That… was…” Pinkie said weakly… before smiling broadly. “So much FUN!!!” She just laughed as she remembered this fun trip. Thomas was confused; so were the trucks. But Sunset… Well, she expected something like this.

She rolled her eyes as she steamed over closer to Pinkie. “You brought that on yourself, y’know Pinkie.” she smiled. “Edward warned you that trucks were dangerous.”

Pinkie just giggled. “I know. I just really wanted to have some fun.”

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with having fun while you work.” Thomas smiled. “But you have to remember, it _is_ work.”

“Yeah, I know.” Pinkie smiled. Luckily, the stationmaster had seen the accident so he quickly called for help.

Soon enough, Harvey the crane engine had arrived and winched Pinkie back onto the rails. After his driver examined her, she was deemed fit to work. Unfortunately, the trucks were too badly damaged so they had to run all the way back to the coaling plant to pick up a new train of coal trucks.

This time, Pinkie was much more careful and kind in shunting some more well-mannered trucks under the hopper and let Thomas buffer up to the front.

Soon enough, the train had arrived at the grotto right on time to find the others waiting for them. “Alright girls, are we all ready to go?” asked Thomas.

“Almost.” Twilight puffed. “We’ve been thinking and we’ve decided that we should go ahead of you, with a wide berth between us.”

“Really? Why?” asked Thomas.

“Because we don’t know what the buffers will do to us once we pass through to Shining Time,” Twilight noted. “For all we know, they might turn us back into humans and we don’t want to be left behind if that happens. So if you don’t see us on the track like this when you pass through, consider that notice to stop and let us on-board.”

Thomas smiled; he couldn’t argue with that. “Alright then. Off we go.” Sunset and Twilight led the way through the buffers and roared on through toward Shining Time.

But along the way, Twilight noticed something and stopped the cavalcade to look closer. “What’s up Twilight?” asked Spike.

“Not sure. There’s some sort of structure growing on one of these brambles.” And indeed, there was a small unusual crystal growing in the thicket. A black crystal. Turning on her geode headlamp, she ripped the crystal off the branch and levitated it into her cab. “We should be able to get a better look at it once we’re back in human form.”

“Well, let’s get a move-on; cmon!” ordered Rainbow and she pushed the others onward, straight to the buffers on the other end of the line. What they would find… would not be what they expected.


	15. Shining Time

It wasn’t exactly a smooth landing on the other side of the buffers, given how jagged the ground felt. The girls were all a bit less than comfortable, but Sunset quickly focused on where they were; right in the middle of a rail-line.

And she remembered Thomas was right behind them, so she had to hurry. “Girls quick, get up! We’ve gotta get off the track!” That quickly got the other girls moving as well, just before a roaring whistle and crossing bells sounded from the buffers as Thomas thundered out onto the line, coal trucks clattering behind him.

He looked ahead and when he didn’t see anything else on the line, he eased to a stop just after the brakevan rattled out of the buffers, letting the girls get a good look at just how big Thomas was as an engine. “Whoa.” Sunset was in awe; just the sight of Thomas’ 4-foot-6 wheels was enough to surprise her. “This is amazing.”

Thomas just smiled. “Well, we’d best get moving. This coal is expected somewhere after all.”

Sunset smirked as she climbed up to his cab. “All aboard!” She’d always wanted to say that, and she was happy the girls listened and all clambered onto Thomas’ running plate, mostly grabbing onto his lamp-irons and boiler-handles.

And then, with a happy **“Peep-Peep!”** on his whistle, Thomas eased along the line in the direction he’d hoped they’d find Shining Time Station.

**(Play “Shining Time” Duet Remix – Christopher O’Shea)**

Thomas smiled as he looked around the bright green grasslands of the valley, music virtually echoing from the hills. He’d heard a song about Shining Time from Mr. Conductor and this seemed like as good a time as any to sing it.

_Thomas: Every now and then  
There appears a sign  
That points just ‘round the bend  
To a place you’ll find  
Covered in clover  
The magic comes over you  
Showing up right on time_

The girls were surprised by the song but still smiled as they listened to it.

 _This is your Shining Time_ (He whistled happily here as he roared through the plains.) _  
Climbing through stars to  
Your own Cloud Nine!  
Soft strokes of lightning  
Paint the skies, brightening  
Up all your Shining Time_

Sunset felt Thomas’ controls and smiled as she learned the rest of the music from his own mind and decided to join him as she climbed around to his front end, her hair flying in the wind.

_Sunset: Feel the golden sun  
And your heart will soar  
Knowing all at once  
You’ve been here before!  
Wandering through stories  
Of your childhood memories  
Calling you back once more_

_This is your Shining Time  
Climbing through stars to  
Your own Cloud Nine!  
Warm cozy places  
Welcoming faces  
Greet you in Shining Time_

Thomas was surprised to have a partner for this song but still smiled as they carried on as the train flew through stations, none of them Shining Time.

_Thomas: Climb aboard, we’ll take a magic journey_

_Sunset: Wondrous worlds await you down the line_

_Both: All you need to get you there is a ticket in your hand  
Time’s up! Hold on tight…!_

Thomas whistled loud, long, and strong as they thundered around a bend, his wheels screeching on the metal of the rails.

 _This is your Shining Time!_  
Climbing through stars to  
Your own Cloud Nine!

_Thomas: It’s always with you_

_Sunset: If you can just see through_

_Both: Into your Shining Time_

The whole team smiled and clapped their friends as they thundered onward down the line. Then Applejack noticed a sign on the side of the line and smiled. “Shinin’ Time Station, dead ahead!” Thomas and Sunset just smiled at each other as they rumbled into town, easing to a stop at the platform in front of the small red-brick building.

**(Cut it)**

Once Thomas stopped, he gave a proud **“Peep-Peep!”** as the girls climbed off through a cloud of steam he let off. “Yee-hoo!” Applejack smiled, straightening out her hat. “Ah could get used to ridin’ on the front of an engine.”

“I hear ya,” said Sunset. “Something about the wind in your hair like that just feels great.”

“Not to mention that this steam will do wonders for our complexions.” Rarity smiled.

Twilight was still focused on the dark crystal she’d pulled from the tree on the Magic Railway, now in her pocket. She looked at it in scrutiny as Spike looked up at her. “What do you think it is?”

“I’m not sure,” she replied. “But I think we have to find out.”

“It’ll have to wait for later, girls. Someone’s coming.” Thomas was right; the station-door opened and who should emerge but the manager Stacy Jones, who looked very surprised to see Thomas.

But she still seemed very happy to see him. “Hello there!” she called as she walked over. “You must be Thomas. Mr. Conductor’s told us all so much about you and your friends on the Island of Sodor.” Thomas was proud; even in other worlds, he and his friends were famous. “Welcome to Shining Time Station; I’m the manager Stacy Jones.”

Thomas smiled. “Oh yes, Mr. Conductor’s told us engines about you as well.”

Stacy beamed; she was happy to hear that. Sunset stepped forward. “I hate to detract from this meeting, but we’re here on important business.” she reminded.

“Oh yes, of course.” Thomas realized. “This coal is for Mr. Stone. Do you know where we can find him?”

Stacy seemed a bit upset. “Oh, I’m sorry Thomas but Burnett lives up on Muffle Mountain and the track up there was ripped up years ago.”

Thomas was greatly disappointed when he heard this, but Twilight just had an idea. “Does he have a phone?”

Stacy thought for a moment. “I think so.”

Sunset smiled as he knew where this was going. “Then we can just call him and ask him to come down the mountain and meet us here. Good thinking, Twi.”

Stacy smiled. “Oh well, come right in,” she said and escorted the girls to the station.

“Should I move out of the way, Ms. Jones?” asked Thomas.

“Oh no, I wouldn’t worry about it, Thomas,” Stacy assured. “Sundays are always slow days here, and we don’t have a lot of traffic on Track 4 anyway.” Thomas just smiled and sat waiting at the platform.

Inside the station building, the girls were impressed; the station was small and old, but it was beautifully decorated and looked like it had just opened. “The phone’s right over here, and I’ll be just a second while I write down Burnett’s phone number for you. Take as long as you need.” Stacy led Sunset to the ticket counter and handed her an old-fashioned black 1910-style telephone before she moved to a small workshop next to the counter.

“Thanks, Stacy.” Sunset smiled as she walked to the counter, leaning on it as she and the others looked around. There was a small arcade in a back corner but everything looked fairly outdated; an old jukebox and old-fashioned games and a little nickelodeon at the front, but it had nothing on the massive mural on the wall which showed various kinds of transportation; covered wagons, riverboats, horses, cruise ships, old-fashioned cars, and large steam engines, leading all the way to a signal box on the wall.

Suddenly Twilight heard something; something that sounded like someone coughing. And it sounded like it was coming from inside the signal box in the wall. “What the…?” She cautiously approached the signal box, proving her right; the coughing _was_ coming from inside it. Somehow. “Hello? Is someone there?”

Suddenly a small cloud of Gold Dust appeared from the signal box’s door, which scared her into falling back… until she saw where the cloud came from; Mr. Conductor, and he seemed a bit preoccupied. “Oh, it always gets so much harder to clean when you’re ill,” he muttered to himself as he limped to the window next to the door, wiping it down with a small rag.

Twilight glanced at her friends who were all looking at the box as well. “You all see this too, right?” she asked.

“Kinda hard to miss.” Rainbow nodded.

Once he was finished, Mr. Conductor looked out and saw the girls. At first, he stared in surprise. Then he smiled. “Well, hello there. Always nice to see new faces around Shining Time. Though I have to admit, yours aren’t the sort of faces we normally get around here.”

Applejack tipped her hat up a bit in confusion. “Oh sure. A place with a tiny feller like you livin’ in a paintin’, you must get a lot more normal-lookin’ folk.” she said with a smile.

“I never said we had normal faces here, it’s just that yours aren’t the kind we normally get.” the small railwayman smiled. “Oh, but goodness me, I’ve forgotten my manners.” He took off his hat and bowed to them as best he could with his limp. “Mr. Conductor; railwayman and storyteller, at your service.”

Sunset was more than a bit surprised. “ _You’re_ Mr. Conductor?”

“Ah, you’ve heard of me then.” He smiled, putting his hat back on. “Let me guess; you thought I’d be taller?”

“Good guess.” Sunset shrugged. “The way Thomas talked about you; I would’ve expected you to be our size.”

Mr. Conductor seemed surprised. “Thomas? You know Thomas?”

Twilight smiled. “We should. He brought us here; he’s parked out on Track 4 right now.”

Mr. Conductor smiled brightly. “Oh-ho-ho, that’s wonderful! I have to tell him what I know.” Quickly he grabbed up his whistle and blew it… only for it to spark and glimmer a bit, but nothing else. “Bother. Must’ve run out getting down here.”

“Down? From where?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“From Muffle Mountain. I just came here from speaking with-”

“Burnett Stone.” Twilight interrupted in realization. “We’re here to see him too. It’s about Lady.”

Mr. Conductor seemed surprised by this. “Then you know the clue.”

“We know part of it; ‘Stoke up the magic in the mountain’…”

“‘And the lady will smile’.” Mr. Conductor smiled and quickly finished it. “‘Then watch the swirls that spin so well’. Good, Thomas has told you most of what you need to know. But there’s more to it than that.”

“There is?” asked Twilight. “What is it?”

Mr. Conductor began reciting short prose, which Twilight started writing down. “‘When light behind the mountain disappears, as a sparkling well shimmers dim, stoke up the magic in the mountain and the lady will smile. Then watch the swirls that spin so well, for out of the deep, gold shall appear and in its wake, reclamation and reformation will recur’.”

Most of the girls just raised their eyebrows. “What’n the hay does that mean?” asked Applejack.

“I think I know.” Sunset theorized. “It’s sort of like what happened with Wallflower. We just have to restore Lady’s magic, and that’ll give her back her memory. But there’s more to it than that, isn’t there? Lady must have some sort of special power no one knows about.”

“Either way, we need to get to Muffle Mountain to get the Gold Dust and the track up there was ripped up.” Rainbow reminded.

“Only one of them.” Mr. Conductor smiled, surprising the girls. “There’s a second line that only Burnett and I know about; not even Stacy or Billy Two-Feathers knows where it is. But I have a map that’ll lead you right there. Just wait here for one second; I’ll try and find it.” With that, he limped back to his door and disappeared through it in another cloud of Gold Dust.

Once he was gone, Stacy emerged from the workshop with a small scrap of paper, handing it to Sunset. “Here you go. Sorry I took so long, my memory’s been pretty fuzzy lately.”

“Ah, it’s alright; we’ve all been there.” Sunset smiled as Stacy walked to the door to tend to a passenger. “Alright, let’s see here.” She picked up the earpiece of the phone and started dialing. She would later admit that having gotten used to her smartphone at school, she was having some serious trouble with the old-fashioned rotary dial on this device.

Still, she eventually managed to get it dialed and the phone rang for a few minutes before someone on the other end picked up. “ _Hello?_ ”

“Hi uh, is this Burnett Stone?” she asked.

“ _Yes._ ”

“My name is Sunset Shimmer; I’m calling from Shining Time Station.” She glanced around the station to make sure no one undesirable was listening in before she continued. “My friends and I know where Lady is.”

“ _You do? Where is she?_ ”

Sunset glanced over at Stacy, who was still within earshot which worried her. “I’d prefer to talk about that in person,” she said. “We have a train, and Mr. Conductor’s drawing a map up to your workshop. We’ll meet you there.”

“ _Alright. But you’d better not be joking._ ”

“Never. See you in a bit.” With that, she hung up the phone just as Stacy came back over.

“So, how’d the call go?” she asked.

Sunset shrugged. “Well enough, I suppose. He was a little… I dunno, off.”

“Oh, I don’t blame him.” Stacy nodded. “Ever since Tasha died, he’s been very sad. He’s been working in his shop up on the mountain ever since.”

“Tasha?” asked Rainbow.

“His wife.” Stacy nodded, making the girls understand instantly. “My mother knew her; she always said Tasha was a terrific dancer.”

Rarity smiled. “Burnett must’ve been very lucky to have her.”

“Yes, he was.” Stacy nodded before she saw something. “Oh, excuse me.” She left the ticket counter again to attend to another passenger, which allowed Mr. Conductor to reappear.

Twilight quickly slipped over to him and saw the small piece of paper in his hands. She smiled tellingly. “I hate to tell you this Mr. Conductor, but we’re never gonna be able to read that.”

“Don’t worry; you will,” he assured. Twilight wasn’t sure, but she didn’t want to seem rude so she took it between her thumb and forefinger. Mr. Conductor released his grip on the paper and smiled as he saw Twilight’s reaction when it suddenly grew to the size of Twilight’s hands.

“Whoa.” she gasped before looking back at the little railwayman. “Thanks, Mr. Conductor. And don’t worry; we’ll help Lady.”

“If you have Thomas with you, I don’t doubt it for an instant.” he smiled before he disappeared again.

With that, Twilight hid the map in her bag and smiled at the other girls. “Alright girls, we’ve got what we need. Let’s ride.”

The others nodded and moved for the door. “Thanks, Stacy, we’re all set now.” That was all Sunset could say before they ran to Thomas and jumped onto his footplate. “Alright Thomas, we found another track up to Muffle Mountain.”

“Right. Full steam, then.” Thomas smiled, steam hissing to his cylinders. “Thanks again, Ms. Jones.” With a happy **“Peep-Peep!”** , Thomas slowly steamed out of the station as Rainbow directed him on the map.

On the way, Sunset and Twilight were in the cab examining the strange black crystal. “I feel like I’ve seen something like this before,” Sunset noted.

“Really? Where?” asked Spike.

“In my studies under Princess Celestia. Something out of my historic mythology readings, I think.” Sunset said contemplatively. “Maybe Princess Twilight knows something.” With that in mind, she retrieved her journal from her bag and opened it to a fresh page before she started writing. “ _Dear Princess Twilight, I think we found a source for why the Magic Railway is acting so strangely. Does this look familiar to you?_ ” She quickly sketched an image of the crystal onto the other page before she closed the book. “There. Now we wait.” They wouldn’t have to wait long.


End file.
